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Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to test this study's hypotheses. The independent variables reflect the study's design (i.e., experimental condition and internal political self-efficacy). The dependent variables are the two political gratifications indexes, national television news and The Daily Show. The covariates are preexisting national television news viewing and preexisting The Daily Show viewing.
Results
Omnibus Effects
Wilks's A was used to assess all omnibus results. Both covariates were found to have significant influence at the omnibus level: The Daily Show use, F(2, 188) = 4.62, p < .05, [[eta].sup.2] = .05; national TV news use, F(2, 188) = 10.83, p < .001, [[eta].sup.2] = .11. The experimental condition also retains influence at this level, F(4, 376) = 4.60, p < .01, [[eta].sup.2] = .05, but internal political self-efficacy does not have a significant main effect, F(2, 188) = 1.74, p > .15. However, internal political self-efficacy does form a significant interaction with the experimental condition, F(4, 376) = 3.06, p < .05, [[eta].sup.2] = .04.
Univariate Effects
Covariates. The covariates function as expected. Previous The Daily Show use is found to have a significant main effect for only the political gratifications associated with The Daily Show viewing, F(1,189) = 9.28, p < .01, [[eta].sup.2] = .05. Past national TV news viewing has a significant main effect for only the political gratifications associated with national television news viewing, F(1, 189) = 19.35, p < .001, [[eta].sup.2] = .08.
Independent Variables. The first two hypotheses concern the main primacy effects of The Daily Show viewing versus national television news viewing in varied sequences of public affairs television consumption. The experimental stimulus condition has a main effect on the political gratifications associated with both The Daily Show viewing, F(2, 189) = 3.46, p < .05, [[eta].sup.2] = .04, and national television news viewing, F(2, 189) = 5.26, p < .01, [[eta].sup.2] = .05. The lowest national television news political gratifications mean is found with those participants who viewed The Daily Show prior to CNN Headline News (adjusted M = 4.74), as hypothesized. Thus, there is support for [H.sub.1a]. Those participants who viewed CNN prior to The Daily Show retained stronger political gratifications associated with national television news than their The DailyShow [right arrow] CNN peers (adjusted M = 5.18). Interestingly, the highest political gratifications mean for national television news is with the control group (adjusted M = 5.26). It appears that viewing The Daily Show alongside CNN Headline News, no matter the ordering, makes viewers think less of national television news. However, the viewing of The Daily Show prior to CNN initiated the primacy effect, which leads to a further reduction in national television news political gratifications.
The lowest mean for political gratifications associated with The Daily Show viewing is for the participants who viewed CNN prior to The Daily Show (adjusted M = 3.29), whereas the group who viewed The Daily Show prior to CNN retained a higher level of The Daily Show political gratifications (adjusted M = 3.58). As with the findings for the national television news gratifications, the highest mean for The Daily Show political gratifications can be found among the control group (adjusted M = 3.92). Once again, coming into contact with both CNN and The Daily Show, no matter the order, leads to a reduction in the perceived political gratifications associated with The Daily Show viewing. However, the primacy effect stemming from viewing CNN prior to The Daily Show leads to a further reduction in The Daily Show political gratifications. These findings support [H.sub.1b].
The Experimental Condition x Internal Political Self-Efficacy interaction is found to influence the political gratifications associated with national television news viewing, F(2, 189) = 5.84, p < .01, [[eta].sup.2] = .06. A plotting of the interaction reveals that the low internal political self-efficacy group that first came into contact with The Daily Show reported weaker political gratifications associated with national television news viewing relative to the other five experimental condition and self-efficacy group combinations (adjusted M = 4.23; see Figure 1). The high internal political self-efficacy participants who viewed The Daily Show prior to CNN retain a similar level of political gratifications associated with national television news (adjusted M = 5.19) as the participants in the CNN [right arrow] The Daily Show and control conditions (adjusted Ms = 5.13-5.38). These results reveal the primacy effect of The Daily Show relative to national television news political gratifications to be isolated among those participants who do not feel they are personally empowered in the political process. Moderator variables answer the question of when an effect takes place (Baron & Kenny, 1986), and the when of The Daily Show primacy effect is with those viewers who are low in internal political self-efficacy. In short, watching The Daily Show prior to CNN leads those individuals with low internal political self-efficacy to think less of national television news as a source for political information. Thus, there is support for H2a. There is no interaction effect between the experimental stimulus condition and internal political self-efficacy for the gratifications associated with The Daily Show viewing, F(2, 189) = 0.99, p > .35. Thus, [H.sub.2b] is rejected.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
Discussion
The satirical eye of The Daily Show is focused squarely on the practice of U.S. journalism. Like other forms of satire, The Daily Show is "unabashedly didactic" (Bloom & Bloom, 1979, p. 16), and this is especially true when it comes to the overriding message the show communicates about the dysfunctional state of national television news. Entertainment-based political outlets like The Daily Show not only have the ability to generate effects on the dependent variables traditionally studied in the field of political communication (e.g., vote likelihood, political knowledge, issue salience), but can also affect individual-level perceptions of traditional political communication information outlets (e.g., national television news). As a result, political communication scholarship needs to adopt a two-prong strategy for studying emerging entertainment-based political information outlets like The Daily Show.
One front consists of introducing The Daily Show alongside the traditional political communication information sources most commonly studied in the field (e.g., talk radio, debate viewing, political advertising, newspaper use). This approach will provide knowledge on how The Daily Show stacks up relative to those types of media use most commonly associated with the study of political communication. A second front would focus on how the consumption of programming like The Daily Show functions in coordination with more traditional forms of public affairs media use. This approach will provide greater understanding on how various types of media use (entertainment and public affairs) relate to one another in producing a broad range of effects. Additional insights would also be offered as to how consumption patterns of various types of political information outlets mutually affect citizens' perceptions of the outlets' utility as political information sources. This study focuses on the latter front of the broader strategy.
In particular, this study uses the primacy effect as a basis from which to begin a systematic analysis of how the combined use of The Daily Show and national television news shapes or alters individual-level perceptions of each outlet. The primacy effect of The Daily Show leads to weaker levels of political gratifications associated with national television news. However, this message order influence is conditional, with the effect being isolated among those participants who are low in internal political self-efficacy. It appears those individuals who perceive themselves to be politically incompetent and ineffective become especially attached to the satirical message of The Daily Show and what it has to say about national television news. As a result, this study poses an important empirical question for future research: Does viewing The Daily Show lead those who already feel detached from the political process to potentially forgo the use of political information outlets that have been shown to aid in knowledge acquisition and political engagement? Several studies have shown television news to provide tangible benefits for citizens (Chaffee, Zhao, & Leshner, 1994; Zhao & Chaffee, 1995). Whether The Daily Show should be embraced as a new form of journalism that has the potential to replace or reform more traditional forms of journalism is open to debate (e.g., Baym, 2005). However, it is clear that The Daily Show appears to have a unique influence on those viewers who are low in internal political self-efficacy. Indeed, Baumgartner and Morris (2006) pointed to self-efficacy being an important variable in understanding the varied influences of The Daily Show, and this individual-difference variable should remain central in analyzing The Daily Show within a conditional model of media influence (McLeod & Reeves, 1980). There is a primacy effect for national television news viewing on perceptions of the political gratifications associated with The Daily Show. Thus, it is not simply the case that The Daily Show as a new political information outlet can affect perceptions of a more traditional political outlet, but that standard forms of news use can influence perceptions of The Daily Show as well.
This study also raises the issue of the need to better understand the political gratifications associated with entertainment-based forms of political media use. Just as an argument has been made for the necessity of studying the political uses and gratifications of new forms of mass communication (Kaye & Johnson, 2002), the discipline should also begin a systematic analysis of the political gratifications associated with new types of political content being presented through traditional media forms. Although the combined use of The Daily Show and national television news impacts the relative movement of political gratifications associated with each outlet, it is clear that The Daily Show does not retain the same overall strength of political gratifications as national television news. The means for the previous media viewing covariates used in this study point to the participant pool consuming The Daily Show and national television news in equal amounts, but the national television news political gratifications mean for the participant pool as a whole is much higher than The Daily Show political gratifications mean (paired-sample t test, t= -15.26, p < .001). This study focused only on the political gratifications associated with The Daily Show and national television news, but future lines of research should analyze specific measures of political media gratifications sought and obtained from various types of entertainment-based political media consumption.
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