The Colbert Report

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Good news for Colbert Nation: People who watched The Colbert Report during the last presidential election are more informed about campaign financing than people who watched other news channels, according to a study by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. That’s because he made the issue a regular joke on the show and created a Super PAC, a real-life example of how it works, the researchers argue.

The Colbert Report was compared to MSNBC, FOX News, CNN, and nightly network news shows, and the data is based on a phone survey of 1,232 adults 18 or older interviewed Dec. 13-23, 2012.

The study was published online in Mass Communication and Society.

Write to Olivia B. Waxman at olivia.waxman@time.com.