I looked at the Shannon-Weaver Model of Communication to help me understand how to communicate my ideas clearly. It can also be applied to a political cause, where satirical illustration is the ‘noise’. Later I discovered it applies to my research into the relationship between the news and social media, and instances in which false or biased articles and ‘memes’ are circulated on the internet.
James Gillray
David Low
I looked at caricature of the 19th- 20th- and 21st centuries and the effect it had on its targets.
“[James Gillray] did more than all the armies in Europe to bring me down.” - Napoleon “I have learned from experience that, in the bluff and counterbluff of world politics, to draw a hostile war lord as a horrible monster is to play his game. What he doesn't like is being shown as a silly ass.” - David Low Steve Bell
'You cannot imagine the frenzy that these cartoons cause. As soon as a copy of the Evening Standard arrives, it is pounced on for Low's cartoon, and if it is of Hitler, as it generally is, telephones buzz, tempers rise, fevers mount, and the whole governmental system of Germany is in uproar. It has hardly subsided before the next one arrives. We in England can't understand the violence of the reaction. Of course, there are some of us who don't altogether relish being cartooned by Low.' - The then Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax
In my essay I looked at how today’s political leaders can be attacked by memes. In this example a quote from Obama’s speech was taken out of context and circulated through online memes which manipulated his words and suggested he’d said something different to what he’d actually intended. His opposition quickly recognised the effect this meme was having and even made their own as part of their campaign.
This paragraph from Truth, Lies and The Internet, a report by Jamie Bartlett and Carl Miller, sparked a new direction of research, as looking at memes which misrepresent information made me realise the ease in which people can be influenced by online content shared on social media.
Statistic from Truth, Lies and the Internet.
I decided to make some poster designs which aim to inform and educate young internet users based on what I’d learnt from my research.
A further development of these posters uses shock tactics to grab the viewer’s attention.
The work of Olivier Kugler inspired me to do some investigative research of my own. I prepared two texts which contained the same information, but presented in a biased way: one negative and one positive. I showed the volunteer one text and asked their opinion. Then I revealed the second and asked whether their opinion had changed. This prompted a discussion which I presented through reportage-style illustration.
In my essay response to ‘Discuss the role that Illustration can play during periods of political and/or social upheaval’ I wrote: ‘Due to the ease in which a picture can be taken out of context and used as false evidence to support the claims of an individual or organisation, and to the sheer quantity of such unreliable content competing for online attention, rather than undertake the difficult task of evaluating and triangulating sources in order to discern factual information from the biased, opinion-based or untrue, the casual internet user may indiscriminately dismiss what they see on social media as unimportant trivia. This may weaken the effect of the message behind a piece of present day satirical imagery, as when viewed on a social media stream alongside an overabundance of diverse content, ranging from these examples of inaccurate or questionable information to comical photos of clumsy cats, it is trivialised along with the rest and its importance and credibility is lost.’
Research into Jean Jullien’s simple and immediate illustrations inspired me to make several of my own responses to what I’ve learnt through the making of this journal.