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Trischa Goodnow, The Daily Show and Rhetoric: Arguments, Issues, and Strategies, Lexington Books, 2011. ISBN 978-0-7391-5003-0
Comedy Central's 'fake news' programme The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (1999present) is important both because of its popularity in the United States and abroad, and because of the role it is seen to play in the US public sphere. There have been concerns that it might promote a cynical attitude towards politics, but it has also been seen as a significant source of information and critique - particularly for younger audiences, who are less likely to watch conventional news and current affairs programming.
Building on previous studies of this programme,1 Trischa Goodnow's edited collection examines The Daily Show from a rhetorical perspective. This approach is more commonly seen within the field of Communication Studies than Television Studies, and the collection demonstrates how it can be used to shed light on the ways in which TV texts develop arguments and engage with public debates.
The collection comprises four sections devoted to examining different aspects of the programme. The first, entitled The Nature of the Beast', tries to pin down what exactly The Daily Show is in terms of form, the way in which it positions itself in relation to traditional news programming, and the role of its host, Jon Stewart. Jonathan E. Barbur and Trischa Goodnow use the Aristotelian notion of Ethos to examine how the programme invites audiences to trust it, while Josh Compton reviews the 'battle of words' (p. 43) between Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer (presenter of CNBC's Mad Money) that took place after Stewart criticised CNBC's coverage of economic issues....