Below in the link are two political cartoons referring to two major topics of discussion we have had in class. The first political cartoon being about plastics in the marine environment, and the second cartoon about Climate change. Although this post is not a particularly enlightening video or article, helping us learn something new about either of the topics, I do believe it relates to another discussion we were having in class about communicating science to everyday people. When a New York Times writer has to write an article about a certain set science topic, the article will be completely different from the article the scientist published in a scientific journal. The language and concepts would be simplified so everyday people would understand, at the least, what the issue at hand is. Some crucial information may be lost along the simplification process, but all in all, it creates some sort of awareness. It had struck me that the media does this in some many more ways than just news articles, one of these ways being political cartoons.
The media’s goal when presenting topics about “frontier” science is to get people interested and wanting to know more about the topic they are writing about. Political cartoons do this in a way that not only gets the readers attention but makes them do the thinking and them do the research. For example, the first cartoon of the marine plastics. The man says that “you can hear the sounds of the mid ocean garbage patch.” The cartoon ends there, yet people completely unaware of the plastics issue would be lost as to the punch lie of the joke. However, the reader has already become aware of the issue at hand due to a visually joke. That is, the man holding the plastic bottle to his ear while walking along a beach full of plastics. So the cartoon has fulfilled the media’s goal of presenting an issue and creating awareness, while provoking interest in a medium both scientists and everyday people understand, humor.
It is interesting how these political cartoons can speak to both everyday people, and scientists alike. With articles, it is hard to get the other party’s approval due to the language and knowledge barrier scientists have over people. The political cartoons use humor and visual stimulus to get attention but also something articles do not get; and that is curiosity. We had mentioned that for those people who knew nothing of the plastics issue, they would have missed the punch line completely. However, this does something an article does not, and that is, it provokes curiosity. The curiosity of understanding the joke will make people do their own research about the issue at hand. I see this as a better way to communicate science because people will go across many sources that talk about issue instead of just one media source that may not be up to par scientifically. So the cartoons almost force the engaged readers to do their own research, which seems to be the best way to get one’s information.
Not all political cartoons are so straightforward as the first one. Take a look at the second one, it seems to be a little harder to understand. Some may argue that difficult cartoons such as the second one are hard for people to understand and would turn them away from trying to understand the issue. However, through the visual aspect of the cartoon, even the youngest and most ignorant readers will understand at least a part of it. For example, there is a really big snake eating a person, and on it, it says global warming. From this, people already know that this thing called “global warming” is a bad thing, because 1) it is being portrayed as a snake, and 2) it is eating the person.
In writing their articles the media is so interested in getting people’s attention and giving them the answers and consolation they look for when they’re curious about a topic. I don’t think people give political cartoons the credit they deserve. They can be very useful in getting a point across, quickly, and comically while provoking both curiosity and interest. This seems to be particularly useful when dealing with the realm of science.
