Making news funny: Differences in news framing between journalists and comedians

Classic agenda setting and news framing research focuses on traditional media actors: journalists, political figures, professional communicators. However, the personalization of politics and journalism, as well as the rise of social media, is creating new spaces for other actors, like comedians. In the separation of vertical media (media which are still aiming for a wide audience with content of general relevance) and horizontal media (more specific media actors building a community around the content they produce), comedians can be considered actors in horizontal media, who help provide the community agenda. This study compares how comedians in horizontal media frame news and current affairs with how journalists in vertical media frame similar news. The study is performed via a quantitative content analysis of Swedish political comedy and traditional Swedish news coverage, with a focus on the emerging podcast medium. It shows that the comedic framing is dramatically more personal and emotional. It is also more thematic and more often on a societal level, while the journalistic news framing is more episodic and on an individual level. The comedic framing is also more focused on issues of political figures and processes, more negative, and more inclusive of different types of societal actors when compared to the news reporting of vertical media.