Public journalism is a joke: The case for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert

Abstract

Scholars have increasingly turned their attention to understanding and assessing the impact of faux news anchors Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, and Stephen Colbert, host of The Daily Show spinoff The Colbert Report. While important work has been done to illustrate the impact of these shows on political participation and public discourse they are still placed within traditional notions of political knowledge and civic participation. Such characterizations remain incomplete for understanding the lasting role Stewart and Colbert may play in contemporary journalism. In this article I contend that Stewart and Colbert are performing underappreciated roles as public journalists as well as serving to re-envision a mass mediated public journalism for the 21st century. Ultimately, through the use of humor, Stewart and Colbert invite a heightened sense of participation in public life in the contemporary mass mediated landscape, adhering to the principles and promises of public journalism. © The Author(s) 2012.