… a picture says a thousand words. You just need to know which words are more important than the others …
EdFN
Reading Pictorial Source
A pictorial source can be a photograph, poster, painting or drawing, drawn cartoons or caricatures. To understand a pictorial source, you need to understand the different 'parts' of the source. Each part of the source may mean something but collectively they 'complete' the source and convey the exact meaning the artist or cartoonist wants to convey.
I'll use a political cartoon to demonstrate a technique I often use to understand these kinds of cartoons. This is based on my understanding of how cartonnists draw their cartoons. Political cartoonists would often draw (no pun intended) the reader's attention to a central part of the cartoon. This is where the 'main' message of the cartoon is most likely to be. This is where the 'essence' of the source is. Figuring this out correctly will help you to understand what the cartoonist is trying to say.
Having said so, this does not mean that the other parts of the source are not important. They also form part of the source and may carry 'secondary' ideas. They may also help to make the main idea more impactful or add a certain tone to the source. I'll use the political cartoon below to illustrate the technique.
A pictorial source can be a photograph, poster, painting or drawing, drawn cartoons or caricatures. To understand a pictorial source, you need to understand the different 'parts' of the source. Each part of the source may mean something but collectively they 'complete' the source and convey the exact meaning the artist or cartoonist wants to convey.
I'll use a political cartoon to demonstrate a technique I often use to understand these kinds of cartoons. This is based on my understanding of how cartonnists draw their cartoons. Political cartoonists would often draw (no pun intended) the reader's attention to a central part of the cartoon. This is where the 'main' message of the cartoon is most likely to be. This is where the 'essence' of the source is. Figuring this out correctly will help you to understand what the cartoonist is trying to say.
Having said so, this does not mean that the other parts of the source are not important. They also form part of the source and may carry 'secondary' ideas. They may also help to make the main idea more impactful or add a certain tone to the source. I'll use the political cartoon below to illustrate the technique.
Figure 1
Source A
A cartoonist's impression on the effectiveness of the baby bonus scheme.
Source A
A cartoonist's impression on the effectiveness of the baby bonus scheme.
Enter the name for this tabbed section: THINK!
Enter the name for this tabbed section: GREEN CIRCLE
Enter the name for this tabbed section: BLUE CIRCLE
Enter the name for this tabbed section: PINK CIRCLE
The huge bunch of dangling carrots tells us that the government's efforts in encouraging people to have more babies by giving them more and more incentives are not working. The people have not responded positively (by taking the carrots). This explains why there are so many carrots dangling at the end of the pole. In short, the cartoonist feels that the baby bonus scheme has not been effective at all in raising the birth rate.
Unlike the content in the two other circles, this one deals directly with the effectiveness of the baby bonus scheme and so it forms the main part of the cartoon.
How to avoid getting it wrong?
It is a common mistake to read too much into a part of the cartoon and assume that it represents something significant, when it's not. This usually happens to inexperienced reader who expects almost everything in the source to mean something. Even insignificant parts of the source are 'exaggerated' to represent something important. When this happens, the main ideas will not be clear and there is always a risk of misreading the source. One way to avoid this mistake is to read more political cartoons and learn more about the drawing styles of cartoonists and the techniques they use to draw their cartoons.
It is important to avoid imposing personal judgement on the cartoons. They ought to be understood from the point of view of the cartoonist rather than the reader's. Such a problem usually happens when the reader has very strong opinions on the subject matter that the cartoonist is commenting about. This often leads to a situation where the reader would 'force-fit' his own impressions or understandings of the cartoon onto the original one. These opinions could stem from his own moral or religious beliefs. They could also be a result of his own bias and limited life experience. These projected impressions will cause the cartoon to be misunderstood.
