Editorial Cartoons & Immigration
The most startling or interesting news facts that we've learned from our cartoons are that it was hard for each of us to find those that are supportive of opponents to the issue of immigration. The problem is also a lot bigger than it seems on the surface. There have been promises from the UN to help refugees, but Lebanon is upset because they feel like a lot of the promises made by the UN are not being fulfilled and they don't have the capabilities to help those refugees needing help. It was also very interesting on the issue of keeping tack of immigrants, Chris Christie wants to put a policy in place where Immigrants entering the US will be kept tack of in some way. There would be benefits to this and negatives, depending on the way he went about it.
In our key findings we've realized the problem is a lot bigger than what we thought. Three of our cartoons display a wave of immigrants shown as an ocean tide washing into these different places we've represented. There are many people needing new homes, and the cartoonists feel we have no room for them.
The overall message conveyed is that many of these places are desensitized to the issue. Then many of the cartoonist also show the sensitivity to where maybe it's not as much desensitized rather overwhelmed. In the Syrian Refugee cartoons, the message conveyed it being the worlds responsibility to offer aid verses one or two countries not capable of offering aid. In this case it's more of a world issue rather than a specific country.
Depending on the issue, the overall tone within immigration some we found to be indifferent, and others widely supportive. Syria and US were mostly negative, although we found two supportive and two negative each, it was hard to find the supportive for our research.
The major issues and debates relating to our topic of immigration are fundamentally based on fears and questions on how our country might be affected economically, socially, and on our nation's own security.
The main analysis we found was exaggeration, for instance with the Donald Trump Syrian cartoon, it shows a news broadcast concerning the topic of the Syrian refugees but was cut off due to Donald Trump having a bowel movement. In the USA cartoon portraying a Spanish family in a tunnel met by "republican's". The republican's are saying to bomb the immigrants, and enslave them. These phrases exaggerate that not all republicans think this way or want this to happen. In the Mexico cartoon of the Anchor baby, the baby is drawn as an anchor, showing that all babies are immigrant's answer for making their way across the borders. Even then, there is a risk that not all families will take. The cartoons ideologies and predominant frames are shown on our cartoon pages and on our individual conclusion pages. The general public agenda for our cartoons, show support and opposition. With those supporting immigration they're able to see the bigger picture and look past the possible social and economic negatives and focus more on equal opportunity. Those with opposition are mostly showing annoyance for those taking their jobs, and seeing them as criminals.
With any conversation it often times starts with a visual in order to contribute to better understanding. While a news article may include deep analysis of an issue and tend to get "wordy," an editorial cartoon gets right to the point. This gives an audience an immediate rundown of the topic at hand.
Editorial cartoons are important for the public conversations surrounding national and international debate because we didn't realize how big of an issue this was without working on this project. Also, seeing the many views these cartoonists have on this issue has been interesting, informative and has brought a new light between the positives and negatives along the lines of immigration.