The Stewart/Colbert Effect

Chas. Phillips

191.241.11

Summer 2014

Mon-Tues-Thurs: 10:30am-1pm

Course Overview:

The fact that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have an extremely wide audience and a significant impact on news media can hardly be debated. The scope and effect of that influence is far less clear, and remains a controversial proposition for thinkers and critics in a variety of different fields. The goal of this course is, first, to attempt to identify the specific (and distinct) tactics deployed by The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and second, to theorize what type of an effect these two shows have on political discourse, the news media landscape, audience opinion and activism, and journalistic approaches. We will view clips and episodes of these two programs and analyze them using recent scholarship on the topic.

Course Requirements and Policies:

Active Participation—20%

Reading Notes—15%

Mid-Term Paper—20%

Presentation—20%

Final Paper—25%

Course Schedule: (Clips to be announced)

Week One: Introductions and Backgrounds

5/27: Introduction, Syllabus, Policies

5/29: Who are Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert?

Week Two: Real or Fake?

6/2 Is this Real News?

6/3 Is this Fake News?

6/5 What happens when they engage politics off-screen?

Week Three: Satire, Activism, Spectatorship, Issues

6/9: Colbert and Stewart go to Washington

6/10: Parody and Race

6/12: Parody and Same Sex Issues

Week Four

6/16: Influences on Politics and Activism?

6/17: Influences on Public Opinion?

6/19: Criticisms, Detractors, and Problems

Week Five: Presentations, Wrap-Up

6/23: Criticisms of CNN and FOX News

6/24: Presentations

6/27: Presentations

Readings:

Shifting the Conversaation: Colbert’s Super PAC and the Measurement of Satirical Efficiency by Amber Day

The Joke’s On You by Steve Almond

Political Satire and Postmodern Irony in the Age of Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart by Lisa Colletta + Hyper Reality chapter 8

Mr. Stewart and Mr. Colbert Go to Washington: Television Satirists Outside the Box by Jones, Baym, Day

How Many Stephen Colberts are there? (Charles McGrath, NYT)

When Parody and Reality Collide: Examining the Effects of Colbert’s Super PAC Satire on Issue Knowledge and Policy Engagement across Media

Formats by Lamarre

The Stewart/Colbert Effect: Essays on the Real Impact of Fake NewsEdt. By AmarnathAmarasingam

The Daily Show and RhetoricEdt by Trischa Goodwin