Cartoon blog#1

Topic: The Econmy
Story: The government official is trying to distract the audience from the real issues of the economy.

Audience: In the United States and during the upset with the government. It was first posted in the Washington Examiner by Nate Beeler. It shows how people in the U.S. feel that the government is just distracting them from the serious problems facing our country.

Author: Nate Beeler is an award-winning editorial cartoonist for The Washington Examiner. He is from Columbus Ohio originally. He creates cartoons on issues facing America today and publishes them in many different newspapers like the Examiner and USA Today.

Argument: He is arguing that the government needs to stop trying to distract from the real problems and find solutions to the problems facing America. The irony is they are using a children’s cartoon to distract a group of adults.

Composition: This cartoon is a single frame.

Word and image: Both are used because while SpongeBob is on the TV the statement of a "new study...." explains the point and would not be as effective if either were missing. The cartoon it self does take the priority over the text and shows the authors point more.

Imagery: The author uses the well-known children’s cartoon to make the point that the government is distracting the people as if they were children themselves. Yes ,they are realistic he does not choose to change anything about the people and their sounding’s.

Tone: The tone is more comic. It makes the reader feel as if the government themselves are looking at this as a joking matter.

Character and setting: The cartoon features a government official in a press conference on the economic problems facing the US. It also features a TV playing a well-known children’s cartoon. The official is just a middle aged white male employee. He is the one that is supposed to face the people and explain the problems. He is just created to represent an employee of the white house or government. These choices in only showing one real character and just the TV draws your attention to the point that the official is the one with power and he is using that to distract the audience.

Cultural resonance: Our cartoon explicitly refers to the government official. The use of SpongeBob is meant to say the government is treating the people as children. The symbols used would apply to a broad audience because the cartoon is so well known and recognizable. It helps the cartoonist reach many audience’s.