The Journalistic cartoon Is a journalistic genre that interprets a news graphically and synthesized, with a critical point of view.
Its purpose is to communicate with humor, irony or sarcasm a fact or event of a political, economic or social nature, spreading it in print, whether these newspapers, weeklies, etc.
2007 journalistic cartoon in favor of the"clean party".
In the print media, a cartoon is also called that newspaper that occupies a prominent place in the newspaper (generally in opinion pages); In this, the great challenge is to transmit an understandable message with a single image (which may or may not be accompanied by text).
There are also strips and comic strips, which contain several pictures, which tell a story a little more extensive.
With the technological advances of the last decades, the caricature and other elements of printed newspapers have also been transferred to digital media.
Every caricature is an exaggerated or distorted graphic representation of reality. With the journalistic caricature is sought to catch the rapid attention of a large number of people (readers / users) who, without having to read a news article or newspaper article, can grasp and understand the message.
The journalistic caricature always expresses the personal opinion of its author, who in most cases is in agreement with the editorial line of the medium that publishes it.
Usually seeks to criticize and ridicule, although in some occasions can also praise or praise.
Characteristics of journalistic caricature
1- Addresses political, economic or social issues that interest the reading community.
2- Each medium usually has one or several fixed cartoonists who periodically publish their cartoons.
3- Usually, it is always the same size and is always located in the same place (page, body and angle) of the newspaper, weekly or printed medium that publishes it.
4- It is signed by its author with name or pseudonym.
5- Use the exaggeration of features as the main resource.
6- Always is about a subject of great relevance at the moment in which it is published.
7- It is completely subjective and expresses the personal position of its author.
8- As it is not an unbiased or objective product, it seeks to influence the reader; This can lead to empathy or disapproval depending on the degree of affinity with the message and how it was treated.
9- Being a product of very current content, it is required that both the sender and the receiver know about the subject in order for the message to meet its communicational goal.
Functions of journalistic caricature
1- Communicate a concept or idea from a critical stance.
2- Show the facts in a humorous or sarcastic way.
3- Attack characters from public life, highlighting their features and / or behaviors, mostly negative ones, and ridiculing them.
4- Call the attention of the reader about an event or event of relevance to him and his community.
5 - To put on the table certain matters of public interest and to encourage the reader to investigate further, to pose questions or to generate collective opinions.
6 - Facilitate the knowledge or understanding of the fact through graphic resources and exaggeration.
7- Disseminate the editorial opinion of the author and the medium that publishes it.
8- Criticize, censor, protest or simply comment on any topic that is relevant.
Elements of journalistic caricature
1- Characters
They can be real or fictitious, permanent protagonists of the space or eventual and specific, that appear like answer to a conjuncture.
If they represent people from real life, they will surely be easily identifiable by the recipient; This will be achieved with the exaggeration or marked emphasis on the most peculiar characteristics of the person to caricature.
2- Gestures and expressions
They are great contributors in the transmission of the message, especially if words are ignored.
In this case, the facial expressions, postures of the body, etc., will also be expanded and very marked to send a direct and univocal message.
3- Visual metaphor
It is the basic element and characteristic of the vignette; Transmit ideas through drawings and get those ideas are understood by the recipient in the same way and with the same intention that the author had in creating them.
4- Environment: place, context or environment in which the story unfolds
In some cases it can become more important than the characters themselves. In others it can be so null that it is simply an empty background that highlights the character and his actions.
5- Plane
It is the frame that is used for the realization of the drawing, whether it is two-dimensional or three-dimensional; Can be a general plane, a close-up or a plane of detail, among others.
6- Color
Many journalistic cartoons, especially print journals, are often in black and white, because of the limitation of the printing resources themselves.
With the arrival of color to the press and much more, after the appearance of digital newspapers, the color began to take over the cartoons, with all the advantages that this entails in the transmission of the message.
7- Verbal language
It is the written text that can include the cartoon for the best understanding of the story.
Dialogues can be used, in which the characters are the ones who speak, or external pictures, where the thought and opinion of the narrator, in this case, the cartoonist is expressed. These pictures are called balloons or snacks.
8-Messages
The message can be explicit or implicit, that is to say, expressed clearly and accurately so that the reader can understand the meaning without having more information, or on the contrary a hidden message, encrypted or that could only be understood if the reader has Prior information on the matter in question.
Resources used by the caricaturist
1- Hyperbole: Exaggerates the physical or psychological characteristics of a person. Use exaggerated language.
2- Irony: Figure that implies the opposite of what is said.
3- Metaphor : Substitution of an element by another with which it has some similarity. Use figurative language.
4- Onomatopoeia: words that imitate the sound of a thing, animal or event to emphasize or explain the scene better.
5 - Animalización: attributes to the people animal traits.
6- Costing: Give people traits of objects.
7- Comparison: Relations of similarities between different actors.
References
- The journalistic caricature. Retrieved from studyingaprender.com
- Carlos Abreu (2001). The caricature: history and definitions. Recovered from saladeprensa.org
- The cartoon, features. Recovered from creacionliteraria.net
- Cartoon, elements. Recovered from creacionliteraria.net
- Charlie Hebdo. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org
- How is Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine that suffered a deadly attack in France? Article of January 7, 2015. Recovered from bbc.com