Voter Generation Gap: No More

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Voter Generation Gap: No More In past elections, the youngest generation of voters has been the lowest in voter turnout, however, the popularity increase in late night comedy news programming is said to have influenced young voters to participate in the most recent election. These programs have greatly affected the popularity of the candidates and may have even affected the outcome of the most recent presidential election. By placing politics in a humorous perspective, late night comedy shows such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report better market their message of the importance of political involvement among young voters. Jody Baumgartner writes in her essay “One Nation Under Stephen? The Effects of The Colbert Report on American Youth”, “As political humor becomes more prevalent, researchers have started to investigate how it may influence various aspects of the political process in America. While individual research efforts have produced varying results, there seems to be a consensus that political humor does have an effect on attitudes and opinions. For example, Matthew Baum (2005) found that presidential candidates can increase their likeability by appearing on humor-based talk shows, and other researchers have noted that exposure to the humor of late-night comedy can prime viewers to base their candidate evaluations on specific character traits (Brewer & Cao, 2006; Moy, Xenos, & Hess, 2006; Young 2004b, 2006).” This may be true due to the fact that John McCain’s increase in popularity after his appearance on The Colbert Report. Many experts believe that the increase in young voters this past election is due to the commentaries and ratings of these late night news programs. The Daily Show has approximately 1.5 million viewers each night (most between the ages of 18 and 24), and The Colbert Report picks up an average of 1.2 million dedicated viewers per
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