EOTO Reaction : The Satire of Political Cartoons

                                                                      

          

                                                                        Photo: Insider

Today’s presentation spoke about cartoonists and the way they work with the news. Cartooning seems like a family easy going job, however over the years with certain political and global changes cartooning has had a lot of power. In most older newspapers there would be a cartoon section, the illustrated would make drawling of something light hearted that would ultimately have a deeper meaning under the joke. However over the years it has developed into a very powerful ways to speak out about certain issues and it has also been used to perpetuate propaganda especially in war times. However the problem with these cartoons is that they were often offensive. 

                                                                       Photo: Open Culture 

The first cartoons started around 1754 by Benjamin Franklin, the cartoon was created to persuade people to join a colony. The cartoon said ‘Join or Die’ which depicted a snake that was divided up into pieces to represent the different colonies. In a way it is the first illustration of propaganda because it sparked concern in the people who read it and it caused action in them. 

                                                                Photo: Benjamin Franklin 

Though today majority of them are purely satirical and manly political and they usually make fun of certin political figures or our current state in the world. For example during Former President Donald Trump’s time in office there were many cartoons made of him because his time in office was very controversial. Especially towards the end of his presidency once the pandemic picked up. Though the cartoons can be very informative for the public to keep up with the current topics though the shouldn’t be taken seriously as a pure form of news since it is comedy at the end of the day. 

                                                                    Photo: The Denver Post 

We learned also in the presentation that the cartoonists have an association known as the AAEC or the American Association of Editorial Cartoonist. This association mainly prompts the work of the people who are featured on the website. It also acts as a way for the public to go on their website and look at the different pieces. Overall cartoonists are a very necessary job because they offer a break from the heaviness of of the news and media in general. And although hey do touch on real topics we face everyday, the creative illustrations  help ease the blow of them. 

                                                                    Photo: The Mercury News