News You Can Trust? An Analysis of the Agenda-Setting Potential of The Daily Show

Abstract

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart's ascendance into the mainstream consciousness has reached a point where many not only consider it to be a source of news, but also Stewart to be one of the most respected and important journalists in the country. This study investigated The Daily Show’s impact on the general public using the theoretical framework of agenda-setting. After grounding the study in existing scholarly research, data, content and textual analyses were performed on 12 Daily Show episodes, as well as data analysis on the corresponding network news broadcasts. It was then concluded that The Daily Show has no significant impact on what people think about no matter what variables were analyzed. Thus, Stewart likely has been right all along in his claim that he and his team are not journalists – rather, they are merely producing a comedy show that happens to involve news and parodies news broadcasts.