On Thursday, Snapchat released a Cartoon 3D Style Lens, which uses AR to make you look like a background character from “Frozen.” On Snapchat, over 215 million users have engaged with the Cartoon 3D lens, and it’s been viewed more than 1.7 billion times. This isn’t a fever dream, and you’re not alone. But it’s time for publishers to anoint the internet meme as worthy of publication.Īfter all, the best political commentary is just as likely to be found on Tumblr as the pages of the Times.This weekend, all of your friends morphed one by one into animated, Pixar-inspired characters. To serve print needs, what if publishers hired staff memers or freelance memers – individuals with a pulse for viral content and an understanding of what resonates with younger readers, who could construct stylized, more professional-looking memes that could appear in print and on the web?Īgain, this isn’t to say that traditional political cartoons no longer have a role. It’s possible that new syndication services may develop for political memes out of these efforts.īut there have been few signs of anyone printing a meme in a physical newspaper or magazine unless it’s controversial enough to become the topic of a news story. They’re even beginning to organize, with some groups seeking union status. Memers, meanwhile, are beginning to see their role in driving internet traffic – and ad revenue – and are beginning to formalize their work and employment as content creators. The Associated Press employs user-generated content editors who comb social media platforms for important images associated with news events.
For example, BuzzFeed occasionally posts lighthearted political internet memes on its social media platforms that speak to a younger audience. Some publishers and media outlets understand the value of user-generated content in political discourse and news gathering. Politics has become, in many ways – as campaign strategist Doyle Canning put it – “ a battle of the memes.” Facebook groups with hundreds of thousands of followers are dedicated entirely to propagating and spreading political internet memes, such as the Bernie Sanders Dank Meme Stash and God Emperor Trump. Internet memes increasingly play a role in politics and even have the power to influence elections. But in 2019, an ugly internet meme that uses a screen grab from “The Office” and quippy text overlay can have just as much clout – if not more – than a sophisticated political cartoon. But the lack of technical skill needed means that they’re democratic in nature – and those that resonate the best will get shared the most and rise to the top.Ĭartooning is undoubtedly a skilled art form.
Many simply appear as a photo with text overlay, something that can be made within a few minutes via an online meme generator or mobile app. Often crudely constructed, they’re far easier to create than, say, your typical New Yorker political cartoon. The political cartoon is technically a meme, which is simply any piece of culture that can be copied or replicated.Ī different sort of political cartoon, the internet meme, dominates on social media. A new, quicker and more inclusive solution to political commentary is needed.
Given the important function of the political cartoon, simply discontinuing their use serves no one, including publishers.īut the field’s high barrier to entry – not to mention the time it takes to actually produce a cartoon – clearly poses a problem. Instead, they’ve come to rely on less expensive syndication services. A 2017 study found that many newspapers don’t even employ an editorial cartoonist anymore. Few have the technical skill to draw pen-and-ink drollery, the common style for political cartooning.Īnother has to do with industry trends. One roadblock to diversifying the ranks of political cartoonists is that the potential pool of candidates is limited. Since 1922, only two women have received a Pulitzer in this category, and it wasn’t awarded to an African American until this year, when syndicated cartoonist Darrin Bell became the first to receive the award. Then there’s journalism’s top prize, the Pulitzer.Īn extensive 2016 study by the Columbia Journalism Review unveiled how the ranks of editorial cartoon Pulitzer winners have been largely dominated by white men. Everett Historical/īut in many ways, political cartooning can seem like a relic of a bygone era.Ī 2015 Washington Post report also underscored the lack of diversity among political cartoonists in newsrooms, noting how not a single black individual was employed as one. Political cartoons have long been used to criticize – and mock – those in power.