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Jan. 10, 2007
Dr. Ross Fuglsang, associate professor and chair of mass communication at Morningside College, and Dr. Mark Heistad, assistant professor of mass communication at Morningside, will examine the popularity of the Comedy Central network’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Wednesday, Jan. 17, at 11:45 a.m. in the UPS Auditorium of the Lincoln Center, 3627 Peters Avenue.
The public is invited to the free event “Jon Stewart and the Future of News,” which is sponsored by Morningside’s Academic and Cultural Arts Series (ACAS).
Fuglsang and Heistad will focus on the news satire’s popularity among college students and young adults, provide insight on some clips from the program, and discuss how the show could impact the future of television news.
“The rise of The Daily Show is fascinating,” Heistad said. “Young people tell us they don’t read newspapers or watch TV news, but they love Jon Stewart. They don’t trust traditional sources of news, but they believe Jon Stewart.”
“Stewart drives lots of traditional news people nuts, but he’s tapped into the youth audience in a way that traditional news hasn’t for decades,” Heistad said.
According to Heistad, recent academic research concludes The Daily Show contains as much news value as the typical nightly network news programs, but that both the show and its viewers have a very cynical view of politics and politicians.
“Given Stewart’s popularity with the demographic age groups advertisers most want to reach, it’s not far fetched to believe that at some point a news network is going to give Stewart or somebody like him an anchor chair,” Heistad said.
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which debuted in 1996, is a nightly news satire that takes a reality-based look at news, trends, pop culture, current events, politics, sports, entertainment, and the media. The show has won nine Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards.
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