Humor and Rhetoric of Editorial Cartoons on Journalism

WITTICISM OF TRANSITION: HUMOR AND RHETORIC OF EDITORIAL CARTOONS ON JOURNALISM _______________________________________ A Thesis presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia _______________________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts _____________________________________________________ by CHRISTOPHER ALAN MATTHEWS Dr. Betty Houchin Winfield, Thesis Supervisor MAY 2011 The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the thesis entitled WITTICISM OF TRANSITION HUMOR AND RHETORIC OF EDITORIAL CARTOONS ON JOURNALISM presented by Christopher Alan Matthews, a candidate for the degree of master of arts, and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. Professor Betty Houchin Winfield Professor Tim P. Vos Professor Karon Speckman Professor Mitchell McKinney ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Foremost thanks to Dr. Betty Winfield, my academic advisor and thesis supervisor, for her guidance, support and patience. I also wish to thank, for their suggestions and support, the members of the committee: Dr. Tim Vos, Dr. Karon Speckman, and Dr. Mitchell McKinney. Additional thanks to Martha Pickens and Ginny Cowell, for their administrative knowledge and support. Final thanks to the graduate faculty and staff at the Missouri School of Journalism for providing an academic environment conducive to learning, exploring and growing. Thank you all. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................ii LIST OF FIGURES.............................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES..............................................................................................................vi Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................1 Editorial Cartoons and the Changing Landscape of Journalism: Journalism in the 21st Century Editorial Cartoons Humor Visual Rhetoric 2. LITERATURE...................................................................................................8 The Scope of Editorial Cartoon Scholarship and Humor: Editorial Cartoon Literature Rhetoric of Editorial Cartoons: Metaphor Humor of Editorial Cartoons: Superiority Incongruity Application of Humor to Rhetoric 3. METHODOLOGY...........................................................................................27 Humorous Rhetorical Elements of Editorial Cartoons: Rhetoric of Visual and Language The Medhurst and DeSousa Taxonomy The Morris Elements Humor-Rhetoric Method for Editorial Cartoons Data Selection 4. ANALYSIS......................................................................................................37 Rhetoric and Humor of Selected Cartoons on Journalism: Cartoons 1-37: Description Contrast Commentary iii Contradiction Line and Form Relative Size of Objects Physionomical Exaggeration Placement Text-Visual Relation Rhythmic Montage Condensation Domestication Opposition Carnivalization Hypercarnivalization Combination Superiority Humor Incongruity Humor Summary Discussion of Humor and Rhetoric Relationships Arguments About Journalism: Decline of Traditional News Media Rise of New Media Technologies Comedians as Journalists Corporatization of News Media 5. CONCLUSION..............................................................................................158 The Humor-Rhetoric Connection in Editorial Cartoons' Arguments About Journalism: RQ1: Humor and Rhetoric Relationship RQ2: Arguments about Journalism Implications for Future Study BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................169 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Chart of Elements Analyzed for Each Cartoon ................................................35 v LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Analysis: Presence of Rhetorical Elements for All Cartoons ….....................149 2. Topics of Analyzed Cartoons' Arguments about Journalism …......................153 vi WITTICISM OF TRANSITION: HUMOR AND RHETORIC OF EDITORIAL CARTOONS ON JOURNALISM Christopher Alan Matthews Dr. Betty Houchin Winfield, Thesis Supervisor ABSTRACT The first decade of the twenty-first century was a time of transition for the journalism profession, and a time of economic struggle for news media organizations. A selection of editorial cartoons that constructed arguments about journalism during this period presented criticism of journalism in reference to four broad categories: the decline of traditional news media, the rise of new media technologies, the role of comedians as journalists, and the corporatization of news media. The means by which the cartoons constructed these arguments was analyzed using a combination of previously understood rhetorical elements, as well as the humor theories of incongruity and superiority. This method of analysis demonstrated a connection between the cartoons' use of humor and their use of other rhetorical techniques: incongruity humor manifested when the cartoon depicted contrast, and superiority humor manifested when the cartoon depicted contradiction. The implications of these rhetorical connections that informed the argument of the cartoon, as well as the arguments themselves, provide a guide for future study of the rhetoric and humor of editorial cartoons. CHAPTER 1 Introduction: Editorial Cartoons and the Changing Landscape of Journalism Benjamin Franklin is credited with publishing, during the American Revolution, the first editorial cartoon in an American newspaper (Burns, 2006). Over 230 years later, editorial cartoons are still found in U.S. newspapers, during a time that those newspapers and other traditional news media institutions are facing drastic economic challenges precipitated, at least in part, by the rise of new media technologies, such as the Internet and portable electronic devices. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, editorial cartoonists are in a unique position to comment on journalism during this period of transition. Constructing arguments, using humor and other rhetorical devices, editorial cartoons provide commentary on current social and economic events, including those affecting journalism. Editorial cartoons are rhetorical artifacts that construct arguments to inform their meanings, which are often humorous based on incongruity or superiority. This thesis is a demonstration of how humor relates to and informs the rhetoric of editorial cartoons concerning journalism in the first decade of the 21st century, a time of drastic economical and professional change. To do so, this thesis focuses on two research questions: RQ1: How do the humor theories of superiority and incongruity relate to existing rhetorical understandings of editorial cartoons? RQ2: What do humorous rhetorical elements of editorial cartoons argue about 21st-century journalism? 1 As this thesis incorporates humor theory into existing rhetorical theory on editorial cartoons, as well as provides an analysis of the humorous rhetoric of editorial cartoons on journalism in the 21st century, its purpose is twofold: (1.) to explain how scholars have studied the role rhetoric plays in how editorial cartoons construct arguments, and to merge humor theory into this existing rhetorical understanding; and (2.) to demonstrate how the presence and type of humor in editorial cartoons relates to their argument construction, specifically arguments about the role of journalism in the first decade of the 21st century. Therefore, the scope of this thesis is defined within the intersection of three scholarly fields: rhetoric, humor, and editorial cartoons. This first chapter defines and discusses the concepts in these research questions: journalism in the 21st century, editorial cartoons, humor, and visual rhetoric. Further discussion on the relationships between editorial cartoons and rhetoric follows with a review of the editorial cartoon literature in Chapter 2. The methodology informing this thesis is described in Chapter 3. The fourth chapter presents an analysis of the humorous rhetoric found in the selected cartoons, and Chapter 5 concluded the thesis with a discussion of the analysis. Journalism in the 21st Century The research questions focus on journalism in the first decade of the 21st century, because journalism during this time was undergoing a transformation precipitated by two interrelated phenomena: the rise of digital technologies and the economic struggles of news media organizations. Writing at the end of 2009, Leonard Downie Jr. and Michael Schudson characterized U.S. journalism as being in a “transformational moment, in which the era of dominant newspapers and influential network news divisions is rapidly giving way to one in which the gathering and 2 distribution of news is more widely dispersed” (p. 28). This widening of the distribution and production of news was an effect of new digital technologies, such as social networking and blogs. Traditional news media, such as newspapers and television news were less influential in the new era of “digital journalism,” which Downie Jr. and Schudson (2009) stated was causing “the means of news reporting [to be] re-invented, the character of news [to be] reconstructed, and reporting [to be] distributed across a greater number and variety of news organizations, new and old” (p. 28). While the era of digital journalism allowed

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