As nine Democrats jockeyed for their party's presidential nomination two years ago, a pair of East Carolina University researchers noticed an odd phenomenon.

In class discussions about the primaries, students weren't drawing on arguments from textbooks or newspapers. They were referencing points made by Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's satire of television news, "The Daily Show."

Jason A. Frizzelle (ENLARGE)

Jody Baumgartner, left, and Jonathan Morris, researchers and assistant professors in the political science department at East Carolina University, studied the political impact 'The Daily Show' with John Stewart has on viewers.

Jody Baumgartner and Jonathan Morris wondered: What effect did the show's sardonic treatment of politics have on its viewers' political attitudes?

"There's a way 'The Daily Show' approaches covering politics, which is to make fun of politicians, the process and the media," Morris, a self-described Daily Show fan, said last week.

A study the pair conducted in fall 2004 found that viewers of "The Daily Show" tend to be cynical about individual candidates, the electoral process and the media. Morris, an assistant professor in political science department, and Baumgartner, a visiting assistant political science professor, published "The Daily Show Effect," a paper on their study's findings, earlier this month in "American Politics Research," an academic journal.

Morris and Baumgartner also found that Daily Show viewers, primarily young adults in their late teens and early 20s, tend to trust their own knowledge of politics.

"There is something going on with regard to how viewers see candidates and how they see the process as a whole ... whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, we don't know," Morris said. "But 'The Daily Show' is not a benign entity out there just entertaining."

How does cynicism affect "Daily Show" viewers' political behaviors? Morris and Baumgartner aren't sure. Alienation could drive the show's watchers away from polls during election, they said. Discontent could also spawn greater involvement.

Another possibility: As "Daily Show" viewers grow more confident in political knowledge — a byproduct of "getting" Stewart's humor — they could become more active voters, Baumgartner said.

"Participation breeds more participation and informed participation" he said. "So that by itself would be a net positive."

Reaction to the study has been mixed, Morris and Baumgartner said.

Stories about it have appeared in The Toronto Star and The (Durham) Herald-Sun. Political Weblogs, specifically liberal ones, have "torn us to shreds," Baumgartner said.

Morris and Baumgartner have heard nothing from Comedy Central or "The Daily Show" itself. That doesn't surprise them.

"Who cares about a couple of pointy-headed academics?" Baumgartner asked.

Fellow media scholars have received the research well, Baumgartner said. Media studies, however, is a young field. The Morris/Baumgartner study "might be getting battered" by other scholars in five years after further research on "The Daily Show."

Additional study may come in the 2008 presidential election, when a wide-open field will give Stewart's program plenty of potential targets.

"That's when 'The Daily Show' is at its best, at its most clever, at its sharpest ... they're going to have a field day in 2008," Morris said.

Jimmy Ryals can be contacted at jryals@coxnc.com or 329-9568.