Snippets from the Annenberg Survey, the results of which you may or may not have heard re: Daily Show viewers:
Young people who watched The Daily Show scored 48% correct on the campaign knowledge test while young people who did not watch any late-night comedy scored 39% correct. Meanwhile, young people who watched four of more days of network news scored 40% correct, equally frequent cable news viewers 48% correct and newspaper readers 46% correct.
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A content analysis of late-night comedy content conducted on Leno, Letterman, and Stewart monologues and headlines from July 15 through Sept. 16 indicates that 33% of jokes made by Stewart during the show’s “headlines” mentioned at least one policy issue, compared to 24% of Leno’s monologue jokes and 21% of Letterman’s.
(Business Journal: “No Joke: Daily Show Viewers Follow Presidential Race” [September 21, 2004]; view the entire press release, along with various tables, @ the Annenberg Public Policy Center official release [PDF])