Editorial cartoons are found on the editorial page of newspapers. They are a powerful, expressed in few words, and use pen-and-ink drawings. Cartoons can be very diverse and have a certain style depending on what the artists is trying to portray. Most visual metaphors and caricatures are used to address complicated political situations and summarize a current issue using humor or emotions in a picture. A cartoon can discuss an issue in time but also talks about what happens before and possibly next. They often include stereotypical, biased, and or demonizing portrayals of people and events. Political cartoons are an effective way for artists to express their thoughts about the events in a certain period in a comical manner. For the cartoon to be effective, it has to be clear visually and show where it stands on the argument. Cartoonist use images that are easily recognizable and is easy for the reader to understand. They use certain pictures and gestures to convey a certain feeling or places such as: the desert is described as a cactus and a cattle skull or fury is steam blowing out of a figure’s ears.
Cartoons often use visual jokes but also visual humor that comments on social/political issues while drawing on viewers’ experience and knowledge. Humor touches our lives daily and can be very personal. It can be the most powerful forms of language that we have. The editorial cartoon, as a communication medium, gives brief visual messages in images that can be processed quickly by the readers. It can be a venue for change, giving comedians a chance to discuss social, political, religious, and sexual views. The tools of the cartoonist must lend themselves to simple but powerful visualizations and include stereotype, metaphor, exaggeration, and myth. By using humor this can help cartoonist express these serious topics in an entertaining way. This can help us get though unspeakable difficulties by taking the ease off by discussing them. Most cartoons are being removed from newspapers and editorial columns because they do not want to upset readers. Cartoons represent the editorial page and continue to shape and reflect the soul of the community. Because they push the boundaries of free speech explains why they are the first to go. Newspapers are playing to win and aren’t looking for the public’s trust anymore but the increase of wealth of shareholders.
At the end of your opening paragraph, you said: “For the cartoon to be effective, it has to be clear visually and show where it stands on the argument. Cartoonist use images that are easily recognizable and is easy for the reader to understand. They use certain pictures and gestures to convey a certain feeling or places such as: the desert is described as a cactus and a cattle skull or fury is steam blowing out of a figure’s ears.”
ReplyDeleteYou make an excellent point here. I hadn’t considered that a great portion of the effectiveness of the cartoon is in how recognizable its features are. The politicians in cartoons are also very recognizable. Otherwise, the cartoonist will put some political symbol in the cartoon to help the reader out.
I also appreciated the way you commented on how personal a joke can be. This is what makes it funny, offensive or even hard to understand if it isn’t personal enough. We laugh because we can relate. We feel offense because we can relate. Or, we feel offended because we can’t relate.
You also said, “Because they push the boundaries of free speech explains why they are the first to go.” I think this is a very true statement. Political cartoons are far from politically correct. People don’t like that. No one wants to feel offended, especially in our society.
Personally I think it depends on the quality of the cartoon. For me, a quality cartoon is not disrespectful. It is funny in a tasteful fashion and it brings up some less thought of point about an issue.
I agree with you on cartoons pushing the boundaries of free speech. I didn’t know that cartoons could be removed because it could potentially upset the readers. I understand why they would want to regulate, I just didn’t know that it was possible because of our freedom of speech. I guess it does make sense though. I mean they are able to use censorship with television, why not the newspapers or magazines? I find it to be interesting that cartoons are funny and simple outside of politics, however political cartoons seem to express and convey the most drama. I think that some of the political cartoons are sad because it’s so easy for people to judge and criticize one another. I also find political cartoons to be funny in the sense that it is ok for someone to make fun of an opposing party, however when the shoe is on the other foot it becomes a battle. I think we need to go back to the simple cartoons where no one is attacking someone. The jokes are only funny until someone is offended. In other words there will always be issues. I think it is a good idea to regulate these cartoons if at all possible to eliminate the hate messages that are presented by writers who push the limit with these cartoons.
ReplyDeletePolitical cartoons do push the limits of freedom of speech, however the lot of the political cartoons do not satisfy all of the criteria of being labeled "unconstitutional" unfortunately. Otherwise there would be no more than a handful at the most if political cartoons were deemed unconstitutional. Why I say so is because most political cartoons can be viewed as offensive or contain fighting words, however it is not like people are forced to read them, if they were then that would be a different story, in other words reading offensive political cartoons ultimately goes down to choice of the person.
ReplyDeleteI do not blame anyone who does so happen to read an offensive political cartoon because that was their choice of doing so, and the result was viewing material that somehow offended the reader. However, most people usually choose to read offensive material for multiple reasons (which I cannot list at this time) but ultimately made the decision to view the material. But then again one may read such material for the sake of curiosity or it just so happen to "grab their attention" but they still could just turn a blind eye and just go about their day. I'm just saying.
These cartoons are in the newspaper and by taking these away it is pushing free speech. If they take that away, it makes it seem like they are taking away our rights. Everyone has freedom of speech and should have the right to express it. I think some people take it a little too far and can get to the point of hurting people. Freedom of speech is all fine and dandy until someone gets hurt. Sometimes these political cartoons can be making fun of the president himself, not just because of what he has done. It’s fine to have your opinions and express your feelings, but it’s never right to make fun of one another. If we keep having these hurtful cartoons about our country how does this make us look? It makes us seem like a bunch on immature Americans. We don’t know what is like to be in their place, I’m sure they are not purposely trying to screw the country over. They are trying their best, I could imagine how hard it is to get a country out of a deep hole. My mom always told me, “I don’t know what it’s like until I’m wearing their shoes”. It’s really hard to judge someone when we don’t even know what it’s like.
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