Analyzing Political Cartoons
For this activity, you will analyze political cartoons to demonstrate how they reveal attitudes about candidates and can be used in campaigning.
Recall that a political cartoon uses various methods to convey opinions about social or political issues. Political cartoonists use tactics like logical validity, factual accuracy, omission, emotional appeal, distorted evidence, and appeals to bias or prejudice to persuade their audience. In this activity, you will pick 3 editorial or political cartoons about current political issues and analyze them.
This website contains hundreds of political cartoons organized by date and representing many different points of view: US News Cartoons.
- Look through the site and pick THREE cartoons. Copy and paste each cartoon link into a document. For each cartoon, answer the following questions:
- Describe what is happening in the cartoon.
- Explain what opinion is being expressed and what tactics are being used. Provide an explanation to defend your selection.
- Explain why you agree or disagree with the opinion of the cartoonist.
2. Based on what you have learned in this lesson and through personal experiences, answer the following 3 questions in at least 3 complete sentences:
- What role does the media play in politics and campaigns?
- Do you think it is effective at communicating political agendas and educating the public?
- Why or why not?
LESSON: Why are campaigns important?
If you are running for office, you need people to agree with your political agenda. Not only that, you need them to get out and vote on Election Day. That is the goal for campaigns. Educating the masses on the goals and missions is very important. Often, it is during election season that Americans tune in to political affairs and become more informed and educated on important social or public issues.
In order to have a campaign, you need a candidate to support. According to the Federal Election Commission, “An individual running for the House, Senate or President becomes a candidate when they raise or spend more than $5,000 in contributions or expenditures. Candidates must register using a Statement of Candidacy (Form 2) within 15 days after becoming a candidate. A candidate, including an incumbent, must file a Statement of Candidacy for each election cycle in which they are a candidate.”Interest groups, political parties, and media all have their own political agendas that they are pushing to influence. By lobbying, raising money, protesting and creating propaganda these organizations can influence public opinion and public officials to support specific views on issues and legislation. All of these groups try to influence voters and public opinion by using media outlets, ads, and propaganda.
In the two videos below, you will see examples of how ads are created by different organizations to influence public opinion and public agendas. As you watch, listen to arguments made on both sides of the argument on whether marijuana should be legalized.TV campaign ads have been used since 1952 to influence American voters from the comfort of their own home. Presidential candidates will use a variety of tactics to spread their mission or agenda and encourage voter turnout. Likewise, they will use negative advertising to tarnish the image of their opponents.
This website is a collection of all the campaign ads from each election since 1952. The most recent election was a close race and controversial to say the least. Watch at least 3 ads from Clinton and 3 ads from Trump. As you watch, think about the different strategies and tactics they use.
Debates:
Another way that candidates can get their message across is through public debates. The following video describes the evolution of presidential debates. Have you ever watched a presidential debate? Which method described in the video do you think is most effective at getting the candidates’ message across?
The political cartoons are created by artists to share a message of their own. Oftentimes, tactics like logical validity, factual accuracy and/or omission, emotional appeal, distorted evidence, and appeals to bias or prejudice are used to persuade their audience. Assess the political cartoons on this page and the next page. Answer the questions that go with each cartoon.
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