http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/549299442

Equal opportunity mockery: A content analysis of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart"

This thesis considers The Daily Show with Jon Stewart's 2008 presidential election coverage. Using content analysis to explore episodes from January-November 2008, length of individual candidate coverage is computed to determine whether candidates received equal coverage. The analysis reveals that Barack Obama received the most amount of coverage in terms of seconds. John McCain received the next greatest amount of coverage followed by Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton. Overall, Republicans and Democrats were covered the same amount, though Democrats were covered more during the primary season and Republicans were covered more during the general election. Age is a common topic for John McCain and race for Barack Obama. Textual analysis proved that context was an important factor in the overall tone of the coverage. The implications of these results are discussed.

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