The Daily Show Effect?

After the presidential elections of 2000, scholars argued that those who watched The Daily Show were politically aware and that a good number of people received the "news" from the Daily Show. Now, there is "The Daily Show Effect" by Jody Baumgartner and Jonathan S. Morris from American Politics Research 34.3 (2006). Here is the abstarct:

We test the effects of a popular televised source of political humor for young Americans: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. We find that participants Exposed to jokes about George W. Bush and John Kerry on The Daily Show Tended to rate both candidates more negatively, even when controlling for partisanship and other demographic variables. Moreover, we find that viewers Exhibit more cynicism toward the electoral system and the news media at large. Despite these negative reactions, viewers of The Daily Show reported Increased confidence in their ability to understand the complicated world of politics. Our findings are significant in the burgeoning field of research on the effects of “soft news” on the American public. Although research indicates that soft news contributes to democratic citizenship in America by reaching out to the inattentive public, our findings indicate that The Daily Show may have more detrimental effects, driving down support for political institutions and leaders among those already inclined toward nonparticipation.

This article raises a few interesting questions:
(1) Do viewers of The Daily Show need to understand the context of a story for the irony to work (this may undermine the "soft news" aspect of this article? With Irony, you need to "be in the know" to get the joke).
(2) Is the viewers possess the contextual knowledge and more knowledge on the topic of politics, are they to be more skeptical, even without The Daily Show?
(3) This study examined the 2004 elections, one of the most polarized in US History. How did that alter the findings?
(4) They conducted their research from Political Science Students. Can they separate the students' knowledge from the Daily Show with their other political knowledge maybe even other political shows?