Research: Martin Rowson on the 2015 General Election

This morning I saw the Guardian's latest cartoon by Martin Rowson. With almost two thirds of my essay complete, I'm extremely tempted to change my final illustration to this due to its play on Cameron as Napoleon as it would help tie my essay today. However, part of the reason why I've chosen Bell's work is because of how vulgar it can be - this would work better with my opinion that cartoons haven't changed that much other than who they're targeting.

Research: Modern Cartoons

Over the past few months I've been looking at cartoons (largely that of Steve Bell and Martin Rowson) as examples of modern political cartoons. I am now however having trouble settling on which image to use for the finale part of my essay. I have looked at how political cartoons came about and how they were manipulated during the Nazi regime to work for politicians rather than against them, but I want a really strong piece of modern cartooning to really tie them together.

Here are two of the illustrations I'm most likely going to go forward with. The Steve Bell one interests me the most as it is about the Levinson Enquiry about Media Phone hacking etc. It's a strong example of politics controlling the media (in this case rightly so) and the media response to it.

Research: More Political Questioning

Here are a selection of anti-establishment sites, videos etc that point out the hypocrisy, double standards and lies within polities. Again these aren't too substantial to my essay but may come in use later on within the module.

http://educateinspirechange.org/alternative-news/look-angry-david-cameron-gets-asked-money-russell-brand/

http://educateinspirechange.org/alternative-news/keiser-report-russell-brand-remove-money-politics/

http://unlockdemocracy.org.uk/pages/about-us

Research: Nazi Propaganda

Recently, for my essay, I've been looking at Nazi Propaganda. I feel that it is a very interesting time for cartoons in Germany and other countries under the 'Axis of Evil' as they were used in a decisively different way to what I have studied thus far. While political cartoons are generally used to mock or satarise those in power, within the 1930/40's they were used in another way entirely, with political leaders such as Hitler shown to be heroic or god-like entities fighting for the rights of the people. Meanwhile he used cartoons to manipulate the opinion of others, specifically towards Jewish people. If Hitler was to pursued people into following his believes he'd need a powerful way to do it, and cartoons were one such method. Often Jews we portrayed to be squalid rat like vermin who worded gold and raped women. These cartoons are an example of politicians using the media for their own gain rather it being a commentary on them as Gillray had done.