Want to be more informed about what's going on in the world? The findings of a new study suggest that watching Stephen Colbert might help you more than actual news programs.
A recent study concluded that "The Colbert Report" did a better job of teaching people about campaign finance in the last presidential election than MSNBC, CNN, Fox News or broadcast evening news. The study — published in Mass Communication and Society and led by a senior researcher at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania — surveyed 1,232 adults and tested respondents' knowledge of campaign finance from a variety of sources.
"['The Colbert Report'] not only increased people’s perceptions that they knew more about political financing, but significantly increased their actual knowledge, and did so at a greater rate than other news sources," the university's Annenberg Public Policy Center wrote in a statement.
The study is not the first that concludes viewers of fake news shows like "The Colbert Report" are more informed than those of other news sources. In 2012, another study found that people who watch "The Daily Show" are more informed than people who watch Fox News.