Could combining humor and news genuinely assist to educate the public? According to new research, young people are more likely to retain knowledge about politics and government policy when it is delivered in a hilarious rather than non-humorous manner. They were also more likely to disseminate the material on the internet.
Satirical news is a mix of amusement, information, and opinion. As a result, satire can influence a variety of audience responses, including positive and negative affect, learning, and persuasion. The nature and magnitude of these communication effects, however, have been contested. According to a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania and Ohio State University, millennials like political news to be delivered with a sense of humour in order for it to be remembered and shared. Such information has also been shown to stimulate brain activity.
Americans looked to the grim faces of newsmen like Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw, and Dan Rather as trustworthy sources for news of critical events in America and throughout the world, delivered with seriousness and measured voices, in the early decades of televised news. Concerns were expressed about the mingling of entertainment and journalism with the advent of comedy-news programs hosted by Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Trevor Noah, and Samantha Bee. Could the combination of humor and news, on the other hand, genuinely help to inform the public?
Our findings suggest that humor enhances activity in brain regions involved with social engagement, improves memory for political knowledge, and increases the likelihood of sharing political information with others. This is crucial because entertainment-based media, particularly for young adults, has become a major source of political news.
Jason Coronel
Indeed, new research reveals that comedy may help people stay educated about politics. A study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School of Communication and the Ohio State University’s School of Communication discovered that, when compared to non-humorous news clips, viewers are not only more likely to share humorously presented news but are also more likely to remember the content from these segments.
“It’s incredibly vital for people to participate with news and politics and to be knowledgeable about public events for democracy to work,” says senior author Emily Falk, Professor of Communication, Psychology, and Marketing at Annenberg. “We wanted to see if comedy could make news more socially meaningful, and hence encourage people to remember and share it.”
The researchers enlisted the help of young adults (18-34 years old) to watch a range of news segments, each of which was planned to conclude with a joke or not. In addition to using fMRI technology to collect data on participants’ brain activity, the researchers performed a memory test to measure how much information they retained from seeing the clips. The researchers also polled individuals to see how likely they were to share the news snippets with others.
Participants were more likely to recall political and government policy information when it was delivered in a humorous rather than non-humorous manner, and they were more eager to share the knowledge online. The findings also demonstrate that watching amusing news snippets increased activity in brain regions connected with thinking about what other people think and feel, emphasizing the social character of comedy.
“Our findings suggest that humor enhances activity in brain regions involved with social engagement, improves memory for political knowledge, and increases the likelihood of sharing political information with others,” says lead author Jason Coronel, Assistant Professor of Communication at OSU. “This is crucial because entertainment-based media, particularly for young adults, has become a major source of political news. Our findings imply that comedy can help people learn more about politics.”
It is important to note that, whether motivated by altruistic or self-interested goals, individuals must consider the values, attitudes, knowledge, and intention of others when deciding whether to share political information with them, and this is especially true when considering what others will find funny. In other words, in order to achieve their social goals, people can engage in mental gymnastics when determining whether or not to share humorous content.
