I’m wondering how powerful satire (in this case, political) is in changing the minds of  those being satirised. I’m aware of the power to reinforce a pre-established idea or ideology, but is it effective in altering someone’s stance.

I spend alot of time watching comedy news shows, such as Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and HBO’s Last Week Tonight, which spend a great deal of their time attempting to rally support against idiocy and injustice amongst government and corporate systems. With Jon Stewart comes a very explicit anti-republican motif, easily and honestly quite marvelously pointing out huge flaws and hypocrisy within right wing groups in the USA, and while being a great source of information for left wing audiences, it’s entirely possible that the rationality is far too easily disregarded by those opposed to it.

There’s a great bit from Last Week Tonight about the imbalance of the climate change debate (link below) which highlights as clear as day the problem with the media representation about the debate, and I’m insanely curious on the effects of this bit on those who see it who are deniers.

More research is needed.