The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press released the results of its survey measuring public knowledge of political affairs today. In news that will not surprise any regular viewers of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, a high percentage of the audiences for both shows were found to have a “high” level of political knowledge. In fact, 54% of The Daily Show‘s and The Colbert Report‘s viewers fell into the “high knowledge” group; only readers of readers of the major newspapers’ websites scored equally highly. From the summary of the findings (emphasis added):
Which Audiences Know the Most?
Attention to the news is strongly associated with knowledge levels, but some news audiences know considerably more than others. Overall, 35% of the public was classified as having a high level of knowledge – on average, 18 correct answers out of the 23 total questions. Half or more of the audiences for six media sources scored this high: the comedy news shows and major newspaper websites (54% in the high knowledge group), the NewsHour (53%), National Public Radio (51%) and Rush Limbaugh’s radio show (50%). Regular readers of news magazines were not far behind (48%).
By contrast, the regular audiences for many other sources scored no higher than the sample average. The audiences for morning news (34% high knowledge), local TV news (35%), Fox News Channel (35%), blogs (37%), and the network evening news (38%) were not significantly different from the norm for the whole sample (35%). The audiences for CNN, internet news sites such as Google and Yahoo, local newspapers, and TV news organization websites scored slightly higher (41%-44% high knowledge).
Full summary of findings available at the Pew Research Center’s site here
The results charts available at the site are also interesting; here’s the one that goes with the segment excerpted above:
The next time I hear/read about another commentator disparaging audiences of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, I’ll be recalling those figures with a smug smile on my face.
The next time I hear/read about another commentator disparaging audiences of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, I’ll be recalling those figures with a smug smile on my face.
Darn tootin! More evidence on how much we all just plain rock, in my opinion. =O)
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We are so smart! We are so smart! S-M-R-T! I mean, S-M-A-R-T!
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I particularly enjoy TDS/TCR getting a higher percentage within the ‘high knowledge group’ than the O’Reilly Factor!!
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I am printing this out to carry around and share with people!!
I LOVE how the Daily Show/Colbert Report viewers are at the top of their sample chart!
We’re No. 1 !!
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What’s disappointing is that only 52% of Colbert Report viewers “identify Putin?” Hello? Putin in ’08! Shame on you, Nation!
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