Entertainment as a Source of News

At the beginning of the 19th century, face to face communication was the only method used to relay news and other important information. The emergence of the printed newspapers and magazines began in the 1900s followed by the radio and television. These advances in the way people could source and relay information had a significant impact on speed and accuracy in dissemination of information. The traditional journalistic reporting methods are however being replaced by new methods of getting information directly from the source. The source, or precisely the person giving the news, is an important element in dissipation of information. He or she is the one with the most accurate account of the events being reported and his or her version of the news is the most reliable. New advances in technology such as the internet have virtually transformed everyone in every aspect of life into a potential source of news. Rapid developments in the entertainment industry have made its various fields, like cartoons and other humorous portrayals of life, a reliable and popular source of news.

Cartoons and caricatures have been a popular sources of news since the days the English cartoonist William Hogarth in the early 1700s. Hogarth humorous portrayal of the seedy and immoral aspects of London was a popular source of news. The significance and importance of cartoons is not only in their humorous aspects but in the power they carry. Cartoons have been used by artists and the print media to topple governments, bring down corrupt politicians, win elections, and in addressing all forms of societal ills. An example is Thomas Nast’s drawings in Harper’s Weekly which significantly contributed to the re-election of Abraham Lincoln (White 384). Every war and election in the United States history has been accompanied and chronicled by cartoons. Their power and popularity is derived from the fact that besides being largely graphic and easily understood by everyone, they are widely distributed and accessible in all newspapers and internet sites. The use of color has brought improvements in the daily and weekly comic strips in newspapers. Publishers and editors have over time become aware of the importance of cartoons as a source of news so much that cartoons are now an integral feature of every newspaper (Riffe and Ommeren 95).

Entertainment is an essential aspect of life in every culture. It is a medium through which information is stored and passed on to new generations through movies, music, and art including cartoons. It is also a means through which citizens are made aware of what is happening in their society and the world at large. The field of entertainment is a vital component of information dissipation in the society as it gives an artistic view of the governments and how they function and the social perception of both powerful profit and non-profit institutions. James Best describes this social perception as an effective way of keeping people informed and engaged in public life (36). The recent revolutions in Arab countries like Egypt and Tunisia were largely driven by fields of entertainment like Facebook, Twitter, and the print media cartoons. As a major generator of revenue in financial markets, the entertainment industry is a major source of news because what happens in entertainment significantly affects market rates. Entertainment, especially cartoons, is a vibrant and credible depiction of governments and other institutions in the way they act to serve the public. This makes it a legitimate and reliable source of news.

Works Cited

Best, James. “Editorial Cartoonists: A Descriptive Study.” Newspaper Research Journal. 4(1986): 30-36.

Riffe, Daniel, and Ommeren, Roger Van. “Ethics in Editorial Cartooning: Cartoonist and EditorViews.” Newspaper Research Journal. Spring (1998): 93-95

White, David, Manning. “The Gatekeeper: A case Study in the Selection of News.” JournalismQuartely. Fall (1950): 383-390.