A study out of Ohio state reports that "fake" news, such as Jon Stewart or The Colbert Report, doesn't inform or teach viewers as much about political issues and cadidates as does watching news on television networks like CNN and NBC.  I never thought learning was the issue when reports started coming out saying that many young people were getting their news from Jon Stewart.  In fact, in my current research, Comedy Central comes in about third in viewer's choice of an information source.  I interpret this as a matter of trust, not education.  We all know that Jon Stewart's primary goal is to be funny and entertain us.  This certainty means we can process what we receive from him in that context.  Within that context, he has no reason to lie, distort, or otherwise reframe current events.  On the other hand, television news is presented as truth, without any signposts to clue us in to the economic pressues that drive content choice and framing of a given network, producer, … [Read more...]