Entertainment Media's Satirical Effects on Teenage and Adult Attitudes of Political News Organizations.

Abstract

This study explored the effect of satire in persuasion by comparing attitude changes between adults and teenagers. It revealed that satire was effective in changing attitudes and that satire had a greater effect on changing teenage attitudes than adult attitudes. In this study, participants rated the trustworthiness and competency of political news organizations and then watched comedic segments from entertainment media that satirized the political news organizations. After the satirical segments, participants re-evaluated the trustworthiness and competency of political news organizations. The satire proved to be effective in negatively changing the perception of trustworthiness and competency among political news organizations, and teenage attitudes had greater change than adult attitudes. The factors involved in attitude change were analyzed, and suggestions for future research were also offered.