How to Read a Newspaper and How to Read a Cartoon The newspaper business is a strange one. Newspapers are a product of a given culture, and their objective is to inform, to expose their readers to the events and ideas that mark their time. Yet they are also subject to commercial reality. Their survival depends on people buying them. Furthermore, newspapers sell an unusual product: information. They don’t need to create news; there are enough things going on that journalists can pick and choose what they want to report. But although all papers may have access to the same information, each of them still has to select and present the news in a way that sets it apart from the competition. Producing a newspaper is chiefly a matter of organizing information on the basis of specific criteria. It involves giving preference to news that will entice people to buy your paper rather than a competitor’s. Objective journalism versus editorial decisions When newspapers are arrayed side by side, what generally determines which one we decide to buy is its front page. The front page is a paper’s best advertising. It is the equivalent of a shop window displaying some of the wares to be found inside. Comparison shopping is easier if all the front pages are lined up next to one another. With the exception of days when all the media focus on some extraordinary event, the front page will differ significantly from one newspaper to the next. One paper will highlight a win by a sports team, another will devote its biggest headlines to some international crisis, while a third will analyse a recent government decision. Front-page headlines provide the most obvious example of the news choices that papers make in targeting a specific readership, but the differences don’t stop there. The other pages of a newspaper are also designed on the basis of these editorial decisions. This is what makes each newspaper unique and helps to set it apart from its competitors. The need for editorial decisions means that a newspaper cannot stay completely neutral. Deciding to focus on certain events rather than others is in itself an indication of a point of view. Story content is not usually biased to the same extent, however, as journalists strive to meet certain standards of objectivity characteristic of their profession. But article placement and headlines are more significant and are often guided by certain political or social leanings. Clues to a newspaper’s subjectivity When you open a newspaper, you should be aware of clues to its opinions. The front page and news layout are clearly the first factors to note, but some specific pages of the paper are also worth examining closely when trying to determine a paper’s subjective slant on the news. The main role of these editorial pages is to express an opinion, which is not always the same as that of the newspaper, but it can occasionally put us on the right track. Editorial pages include opinion columns, M965.199.4567 : Where's Joe?, John Collins, about 1944 The Art of Cartooning Where to Draw the Line? Editorial Cartoons in Quebec, 1950-2000 © McCord Museum, 2009 http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/cartoons/pdf/words/read.pdf 1 editorials and, of course, political cartoons. Besides being funny, cartoons also convey a point of view. In many cases, humour makes them even more effective at getting ideas across. In essence an illustrated editorial, a political cartoon is a distinct news and opinion medium worth examining on its own merits. How to Read an Editorial Cartoon Political cartoons are art of the moment. They are produced daily in reaction to the latest news and distributed immediately. Like the newspapers in which they are published, they begin to lose their topicality the day after they are published. They are literally “disposable after use,” as most people don’t keep old papers. It has even been said that editorial cartoons are the only art form that can be used in good conscience to light a fire! They are perfectly suited to their medium: newspapers have a short life span and cartoons provide their punch. To hit harder, they dispense with any unnecessary details that might bog them down. They have to be understandable immediately, but they lose their bite just as quickly. Effective in the moment, they often seem less funny when examined a second time. Art that is created and consumed, sometimes even by flames, often in less than a day, cartoons are a unique form of communication. M998.48.11 : Poker Game, Aislin, 1991 We shouldn’t forget that cartoons are usually supposed to be funny. After all, their primary function is to convey a serious message in an irresistible guise. Not to mention that, using irony and ridicule, cartoonists can usually go a step further than editorialists. They often have to make their readers laugh in order to get away with what they have drawn. And if they manage to make readers smile, there is a good chance they will succeed in meeting their second objective, which is to make people think. A successful cartoon grabs the attention of anyone who thumbs through a newspaper, makes a reader stop and take a look for a few seconds. But it also manages to make people think and smile in the same brief moment. Recognizing cartoon codes It takes a certain amount of skill and knowledge to interpret, or decode, an editorial cartoon. To make their drawings simpler and therefore more effective, cartoonists generally resort to a conventional code -- symbols, pictures that are worth a thousand words. If a man is stout and smokes a big, fat cigar, you know he’s supposed to be powerful. The cartoonist’s use of these symbols is enough to get the message across without words. Similarly, if a character is depicted as small, the cartoonist probably wants to indicate that he is weak or insignificant. To understand a cartoon’s message properly, you have to identify the code and interpret it correctly. M998.51.207 : We love you! -Not right now, I have a headache..., Serge Chapleau, 1995 The Art of Cartooning Where to Draw the Line? Editorial Cartoons in Quebec, 1950-2000 © McCord Museum, 2009 http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/cartoons/pdf/words/read.pdf 2 Cartoonists also use another set of codes, or rhetorical devices. These are methods that mix pieces of current affairs to produce a desired comic effect. Being able to recognize these devices is another useful skill for decoding a cartoon. According to author Raymond N. Morris, these rhetorical devices include opposition, in which a complex situation is reduced to a struggle between two characters, and condensation, in which disconnected events are compressed into a common frame. The device of combination refers to the deliberate juxtaposition of elements or ideas with different meanings, whereas in domestication, a news event is depicted using familiar or even folkloric cultural references. In other words, determining the type of device at work may help you appreciate what is meant. Understanding the historical context The work of a cartoonist is based to a large degree on the references of his society and his time. That is why trying to understand cartoons from the past may seem like trying to read a newspaper from a foreign country: you won’t understand it if you don’t know the context. The characters portrayed are often hard to identify, especially if the drawing goes back to a time that you haven’t experienced yourself. On top of that, there are all the social conventions, all the customs of another M2007.69.69 : National holidays, Garnotte, 1996 age that have now been lost. In many cases, a cartoon that made people laugh at one time will not even get a smile out of someone who looks at it with no knowledge of the context, who doesn’t have the cultural references required to read it. On the other hand, cartoons can get a second lease on life when they are put in their historical context. As commentaries on a specific moment in time, they quickly become dated, but interest in them can be revived by reconstructing the situation in which they were created. This is why, among the 20,000 cartoons conserved by the McCord Museum and accessible online, hundreds of them are presented with reading keys (what, where, when and who) that help us appreciate them once again. Art of opinion A cartoon is an editorial statement on some aspect of current affairs. Cartooning requires both creativity and critical judgment on the part of the artist. When a cartoon is put in its historical context, the political leanings of the cartoonist can be determined. What is his view of the situation? What does the drawing tell us about his opinions, beliefs, prejudices? Even an old cartoon can spark a real debate today between those who find it funny and those who simply find it offensive. Critical judgment is therefore another M2002.133.18: Somalia, Éric Godin, 1993 The Art of Cartooning Where to Draw the Line? Editorial Cartoons in Quebec, 1950-2000 © McCord Museum, 2009 http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/cartoons/pdf/words/read.pdf 3 quality needed for reading a cartoon. Give your opinion on what you see, discuss it with the people around you. And remember that the cartoonist has done a good job if he gets a smile out of you, and an even better job if he manages to get you to think. The Art of Cartooning Where to Draw the Line? Editorial Cartoons in Quebec, 1950-2000 © McCord Museum, 2009 http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/cartoons/pdf/words/read.pdf 4 BIBLIOGRAPHY Printed sources Hou, Charles, and Cynthia Hou. The Art of Decoding Political Cartoons: A Teacher’s Guide. Vancouver: Moody’s Lookout Press, 1998, 72 p. Marquis, Dominique. “La presse catholique au Québec, 1910-1940.” PhD diss., Université du Québec à Montréal, 1999, 435 p. Morris, Raymond N. The Carnivalization of Politics: Quebec Cartoons on Relations with Canada, England, and France (1960-1979). Montreal and Kingston: McGillQueen’s University Press, 1995, 148 p. Online sources Walker, Rhonda. “Political Cartoons: Now You See Them!” Canadian Parliamentary Review 26, no. 1 (2003), http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Sites/LOP/Infoparl/english/issue.asp?param=57&art=4 See also, on the McCord Museum site Rousseau, Karine, and Christian Vachon. Cartoons (1850-1900). Rousseau, Karine, and Christian Vachon. Cartoons (1900-1950). “Interpreting artifacts,” Inquire with ClioClic (Educational Guide). EduWeb, McCord Museum, http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/eduweb/interpret/. The Art of Cartooning Where to Draw the Line? Editorial Cartoons in Quebec, 1950-2000 © McCord Museum, 2009 http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/cartoons/pdf/words/read.pdf 5