People now said to learn more from Stepehn Colbert than actual news programs

Jun 3, 2014 19:59 GMT  ·  By
Study finds people tend to learn more from the "The Colbert Report" than actual news programs
   Study finds people tend to learn more from the "The Colbert Report" than actual news programs

Here is a piece of news that might make you either tilt your head and raise your eyebrows in disbelief, or let out a wholehearted “I knew it!”: according to the findings of a recent investigation, “The Colbert Report” is more informative than actual news programs.

More precisely, it appears that, at least when it comes to teaching people all about the ins and outs of campaign finance, “The Colbert Report” episodes that aired during the last presidential election did a much better job than MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, and the like.

Besides, Huffington Post tells us that, by the looks of it, people who watch Stephen Colbert on a regular basis have higher chances to be informed on a variety of topics than folks who stick to watching actual news programs alone.

“[‘The Colbert Report’] not only increased people’s perceptions that they knew more about political financing, but significantly increased their actual knowledge, and did so at a greater rate than other news sources,” a team of University of Pennsylvania researchers explains.

In case anyone was wondering, the claim that “The Colbert Report” trumps actual news programs when it comes to helping people keep in touch with what is happening in the world is based on information obtained while carrying out a survey. All in all, 1,232 adults were interviewed.