When creating political media cartoons, start by understanding the issues and people involved. If you want to create a meme, you need to make sure that the intended audience is familiar with the reference image, or that it speaks for itself. Step2 Work out the perspective or angle you want to present. Is the issue something that you want to celebrate or criticise? Do you want to make the reader angry or sad, or adopt a particular viewpoint? You will need to choose the visual and written content carefully to convey your message. Make sure you also understand the alternative perspective; you may ýnd after research that you want to change your approach or point of view.
CASESTUDY COVIDSafe
FIGURE1 A screenshot of the COVIDSafe application. You can see that there is information to explain to the user what the application is for and how it works. This aims to reassure users that the application is safe.
There are many examples of political cartoons, advertisements and memes. This case study shows how an issue can become the focus of a political cartoon. In early 2020, Australia faced the COVID-19 pandemic. Identifying potential infections was called contact tracing and initially involved numerous phone calls to track an infected person’s signiýcant contact in the previous 14 days. Countries such as Singapore developed applications to streamline the process and allow faster identity of contacts. In April 2020, the Australian government launched COVIDSafe, an application for contact tracing. Concerns about data safety were raised due to existing data retention laws requiring phone and internet companies to keep user data for two years. The government reassured the public that only contact tracers could access the data from the application, which would be deleted soon after. Cartoonist David Pope created a cartoon highlighting public concerns about the Department of Home Affairs misusing information gathered from the COVIDSafe app ( FIGURE2 ). This cartoon emphasises people’s caution in providing the government with more personal data. The cartoon shows a likeness of the
then Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton, who has been drawn as the coronavirus. The Chief Medical Ofýcer of Australia, Brendan Murphy, is shown with the measuring tape, talking to then Prime Minister Scott Morrison. The measuring tape and the text in the speech bubble are a play on the concept of social distancing. You should note that the depictions of the three people are a recognisable likeness of each person.
Jacaranda Humanities Alive 7 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
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