The editorial cartoon illustrates the changing ways of the media. A young paperboy is trying to deliver newspapers, but his bag is empty. His hand is raised pretending to hold a newspaper, but the cartoon has the word “poof” in the air he is grasping. Four major newspaper names are labeled on his delivery bag, suggesting a merger of the four companies. The boy is first yelling, “American newspapers disappearing! Read all about it!” Then, he whispers “online” to the people listening to him. His facial expression shows his anger, because his eyes are squinting as he is yelling the announcement.
The main theme of the cartoon is the diminishing of print newspapers’ readership. The “poof” of the newspaper in the boy’s hand supports the fact that the print newspaper industry is slowing down. Since the newspaper industry is becoming extinct for some areas, the boy has no papers to pass out. Four newspapers, The Daily, Clarion, Bugle, and Sunday, are represented on the boy’s delivery bag. Even with the merger of four major newspapers, the print newspaper industry is diminishing, and support of printed journalism is declining.
One conclusion that could be drawn from this cartoon is Internet news sources are overpowering and taking over the industry of paper newspapers. The boy yells the message about American newspapers disappearing, but then whispers that the people can read about it online. An explanation for his whispering is that he may not want to admit how powerful the Internet is becoming. In the cartoon, the words in the first announcement are all CAPITALIZED and substantial in size. The words in the second announcement are much smaller and harder to read. The most significant feature in the cartoon that immediately catches the reader’s eyes is the big “poof” in the boy’s hand. “Poof” is defined as the suddenness something disappears. This implies that the Internet has suddenly flourished and replaced the need for print newspapers. According to the statistics of “The New Information Ecology," fifty percent of Americans get their news and information on a typical day from print local newspapers(Slide 16). Seventeen percent of Americans get their news and information from print national newspapers(Slide 16). These statistical values have been diminishing due to the increasing use of the Internet. Sixty-one percent of Americans get their news and information from the Internet (Slide 16). Online news (Slide 31) is portable, participatory, and personalized; these are three reasons why the use of the Internet is becoming more universal.
David Fitzsimmons expresses his interpretation of the changing of media and journalism through his cartoon. The cause and effect relationship between print newspapers’ readership diminishing and Internet news sources growing is still unknown. Whether the diminishing readership of print newspapers is causing the Internet’s flourishing, or the Internet’s flourishing is causing the diminishing readership of print newspapers, the fact is today’s media is undergoing a big change.
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