Fourth: Media Biases

This lecture’s political cartoon portrays a few of the most biased news networks in the United States. In addition, this cartoon pokes fun at the American public’s lack of knowledge or misinformation of key world events. The first image is of an anchorwoman for CNN. She is reporting on a story that completely bashes Republicans and Conservatives alike. Simultaneously, the anchorman for Fox News in the picture is bashing liberals and trying to associate them with the Devil. On the other hand, the anchorman for BBC, which is most commonly known as an unbiased and well reported news source, is stating that all Americans are clueless and no little to nothing about the state of the world. Each of the news stations pictured are typically associated with the image portrayed. For example, CNN is known as a liberal network, Fox is known as conservative, and BBC sometimes possesses an anti-American stance. This cartoon represents all the fallacies within the American media system, and simultaneously mocks American ignorance.

Third: My Political Ideology v. Political Opinion

According to Pew Typology Test, I rank as an Enterpriser, meaning an extremely conservative person. This group is very conservative on most social issues as well as economic issues. In my personal thoughts, my political ideology is definitely more conservative than most people my age, yet I am convinced that all my political opinions are not staunchly conservative. While creating political cartoons, it is very important to express your opinion. In most cases, political cartoons are used to portray the artist’s feeling toward a situation. For that reason, I find that my work for the past comprehensive assignments have definitely expressed my political opinions, and I know that they will continue to do so in the future.

After analyzing my last two political cartoons, I would consider my political opinions on issues like freedom of religion to be much more Moderate than that of most typical Enterprisers. For example, the political cartoon I drew for Lecture Two takes a satirical stance mocking the debate over the placement of the Muslim temple in New York City. While many current Enterprisers would support the argument that Muslim’s should be treated differently because of the actions of a small group almost ten years ago, I tend to lean to the more liberal side. According to the Constitution, all people have the right to practice their own form of religion and no government body can interfere with that right. Even more so, my work for the first lecture represented the Anti-Federalist stance which is sometimes considered to be the origin of the Democratic party. Therefore, my political cartoons tend to represent my political opinions much more so than my Pew Typology political ideology. This cartoon is a representation of that dichotomy.

Second: Religious Intolerance

According to the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, the First Amendment protects the right of American citizens to practice whichever religion they please without government interference. Nevertheless, after the September 11^th attacks on the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon, hysteria and fear has greatly limited the freedom of religion granted to people of Islamic faith in the United States. My political cartoon attempts to portray this current dilemma. For example, before 9/11, the government would not have become involved in the location of a Muslim mosque. However, a group of Muslims in New York City are currently arguing for their Constitutional right to build a mosque in the city, but their request created much debate because the proposed location is relatively near Ground Zero where the Towers fell. This is just one example of the double standard within the realm of freedom of religion that is currently the norm in the United States. My cartoon shows on one side a Christian church, a Jewish temple, a Hindu temple, and a Buddhist temple, and on the opposing side, it shows an Islamic Mosque. Between the two scenes is the First Amendment, but I have added an extra phrase beneath which exempts Muslims from their constitutional right claiming 9/11 as justification.

First: Anti-Federalist View

My political cartoon attempts to portray the Anti-Federalist view of the Constitution. The background of the scroll is the written Constitution and the illustration in the foreground represents the Anti-Federalist interpretation of the document. The Anti-Federalists feared that a strong central government would render the individual states powerless. For that reason, I drew my USA character much larger than the other characters. Additionally, Mr. USA is flexing his arm muscles and standing above the “state people” representing the Federal government overpowering that of the state. Further, the USA character is smiling and enjoying itself while the state governments look upset and depressed. Even more, the state people who represent the thirteen states which existed during the Constitution’s ratification, are all very small, weak, and unhappy. If I had created this cartoon during the debate over ratification, I would have published it in a popular newspaper so that it could influence the masses with the Anti-Federalist ideals.

Political Cartoons

In my Political Science class, I have been required to create Political Cartoons which correspond with each lesson's subject matter. The following posts will include my works.

The Tragedy of Public Knowledge

After taking the time to read the Pew Research Center article “Public Knowledge of Current Affairs”, I became slightly agitated with the American public. Due to the United States government being a representative democracy, each citizen does not have hands on access or extensive influence over the government’s every decision. In order to insure protection from a corrupt government, citizens must stay informed. The Pew article explained that after a poll, almost one-third of the Americans polled could not even recall the name of the current vice president. This information should be second nature to Americans if they wish to forever preserve their freedoms and liberties.

While reading the article, I followed the link to the current Public Knowledge quiz. I scored higher than 89% percent of Americans by answering only nine questions of the eleven correct. The entire article and experience opened my eyes to the impulsiveness and the selfishness of the general American public. Most American citizens consider any knowledge that might not be completely beneficial at a given moment as unnecessary and not important. Americans, and especially young Americans, would rather turn the TV to an episode of The Jersey Shore or other nonsense instead of watching just three minutes of a would news report.