The Investigator: The Impact of a Satirical Radio Drama

Abstract

Investigation of attitude change was conducted using a controversial program broadcast by the CanadianBroadcasting Corporation satirizing Senator McCarthy. Attitudes toward congressional investigations became less favorable while attitudes toward the Senator became more favorable after exposure. @ EXPERIMENTS ON THE EFFECTIVEness of mass communications in changing attitudes have been restricted primarily to studying the effect produced by messages especially constructed by the experimenter for the laboratory experiment. This type of research is desirable in that experiments can be de-'This study was undertaken at a time when the actions of Senator McCarthy still claimed much attention-late March and early April, 1955.

Effects of Humor in a Radio Advertising Experiment

“…Researchers in speech (17,18,26,36,42), journalism (3,19), and sociology (29) have examined the effects of relatively sophisticated forms of humor (e.g., satire) on acceptance of complex and emotionladen topics (e.g., capital punishment). Application of these findings to brief, low involvement television or radio messages may not be appropriate (8).…”

Humorous lectures and humorous examples: Some effects upon comprehension and retention.

“…The advice to use humor for communication enhancement has been considered in several empirical studies (Berlo & Kumata, 1956;Gruner, 1965Gruner, , 1966. Only a handful of studies, however, have focused upon the efficacy of humor for lectures in a teaching situation.…”

Maybe it Is More Than a Joke: Satire, Mobilization, and Political Participation*

“…A review of the literature examining the effects of political humor viewership reveals that the majority has focused on younger citizens and that relatively little of this scholarship examines the effect of humor viewership on political participation. For example, virtually all of research prior to the 2000s, mainly from communication scholars, focused on the effects of political humor consumption (editorials, speeches, television, radio) on the attitudes of younger adults (Asher and Sargent, ; Berlo and Kumata, ; Brigham and Giesbrecht, ; Brinkman, ; Ford, ; Ford and Ferguson, ; Gruner, , , , , ; Lull, ; Pokorny and Gruner, ; Powell, , , , ; Priest, ; Priest and Abrahams, ).…”