Introduction
While thinking about the possible topics for this assignment, I happened to find a number of comical cartoon strips that caught my attention. I chose to evaluate a piece by M. Wuerker that touches on the issues of print media and traditional news outlets in the modern age. The trend displayed by the author is relevant to our current society with the ever-rising popularity of the internet and social media. This piece seems important to me, as it highlights the present risk of losing physical media sources.
Main body
In this essay, I will try to show how this image effectively utilizes text, shape, and color to convey and promote its messages. The number of problems raised and discussed by the public each day is immeasurable, so to reach the vastest possible audience the message must be short, memorable, and well-presented. The image in question is successful at making the reader question their behavior, as well as in raising awareness of the decay of journalism.
The first criterion for evaluating this image is its relevancy. The messages of this piece become more apparent as technology advances, with each passing year. In the modern day, the use of smartphones and computers has seen a significant rise, especially in big, developed cities. With the increase in popularity came the invention of news websites and social media, which have quickly garnered mainstream success and popularity. While it takes a large amount of effort and money to write, review, and print a real newspaper, the same cannot be said about the digital one, as it does not require paper or ink. With the quick availability of many online news sites and their cheaper production cost, the online media outlets rapidly start to replace the traditional ones, posing a real threat to the news industry.
My second criterion deals with the clarity and effectiveness of the message. This comic places the blame for the decline of print press on the viewers who are too ignorant and absorbed into their phones to notice their involvement with the issue. The piece demonstrates that by depicting people as deformed caricatures, with giant phone screens in their hands, bringing the viewers’ attention to the core component of the image. The image is also strongly supported by text, which in the form of irony lets the reader know that most people unknowingly contribute to the death of real journalism. The use of color is also important to note, as it brings the pieces of the picture into a unified narrative. The people in the foreground are brightly colored and serve as the center of attention for the viewer, while the buildings in the background are grayish-blue, highlighting their abandonment by the public and restating the point of the piece.
Conclusion
I would also like to emphasize the use of pathos in the delivery of the message and its impact. The picture is designed to evoke a sense of shame and self-reflection through its depiction of people as phone-obsessed zombies and is primarily aimed at forming an emotional bond with the viewer. It reinforces these feelings by the clever use of a thought bubble, where the audience can see the satirized behavior exemplified by a single person. This cartoon has the goal of changing people’s perspective by making them feel guilty and aware of their action’s possible impact.
