Comments on: Report from the UW-Madison Television Comedy Conference http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/10/17/report-from-the-uw-madison-television-comedy-conference/ Responses to Media and Culture Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:35:04 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.5 By: Funny Business: Critical Analysis of Television Comedies, Part 2 | Cultural Learnings http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/10/17/report-from-the-uw-madison-television-comedy-conference/comment-page-1/#comment-125029 Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:58:51 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=11037#comment-125029 […] McNutt: Since your last missive, I spent an entire weekend sitting in a room of academics discussing television comedy, which dealt with many of the issues you discuss in terms of expanded potential of journalistic […]

]]> By: Jeffrey Jones http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2011/10/17/report-from-the-uw-madison-television-comedy-conference/comment-page-1/#comment-122420 Mon, 17 Oct 2011 18:17:51 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=11037#comment-122420 Thanks for writing this up, Jennifer, and thanks to all who came and contributed. Just to clarify for public record, the discussion on Comedy and Politics did note that anyone who studies audiences is interested in media effects. But I do believe most everyone was arguing the complete opposite of “the merits of working within the confines of empirical American political science.” That is to say, if we are all critical-cultural scholars, what questions do we have of the audience for political comedy that are different from those posed by political scientists?

As for me personally, I was arguing that while the latter are interested in effects on citizens in ways that ultimately serve the interests of the state (or status quo), I believe the former are interested in effects that contribute to democratic communication and transformation between and amongst citizens themselves. I see that perhaps I didn’t communicate that very “effect”ively! 🙂

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