TOW #3: Visual Text Analysis: Political Cartoon by Steve Kelley

This political cartoon's primary intention is to poke fun at the most prescient political and social issues facing the American public during this past week. It relies on the popular "bait and switch" technique, oft employed in political cartoons to address multiple issues that are unrelated, aside from the fact that they are both current events. In this case, an image of the White House, with speech bubbles showing a discussion of "boots on the ground" leads the reader initially to believe the cartoon is a depiction of Barack Obama discussing the pressing issue of ISIS' advance through the Middle East with one of his staffers. In the second panel, it is revealed that he is actually discussing the state of the National Football League, and its various publicity scandals.

A large portion of the comic's appeal is derived from the fact that it can be easily understood and appreciate by almost all Americans, and the fact that it doesn't play towards or against any specific political persuasion. Any American who turned on the morning news during the week of September 15th to 21st would be keenly aware of both issues that this comic discusses. This sort of appeal is rare among political cartoons, given that most rely on one sort of extreme bias or another. This comic, however, skillfully relates a clever retelling of current events without igniting any political fires amongst its viewers. 

As a result of the comic's brevity, the rhetorical devices used are necessarily very small in number. Perhaps the only true rhetorical device used is the assumption of knowledge of American popular culture on the part of the reader. Kelley assumes that the reader is aware of both issues being discussed, because they have been in the public eye for several weeks at the time of the cartoons publishing. One could also argue, however, that the use of the "bait and switch" technique discussed earlier is a rhetorical device as well. Also that the change in the angle from which the White House is shown in the second panel is a visual tool to relate the new angle from which the reader will view the comic after reading the second panel. 

In analyzing a visual text, it is equally important to understand what the author is saying, and why they are saying it. In this case, Kelley is playing off of two unrelated but equally relevant events; the various public relations scandals within the NFL, and the growing concern over ISIS' spread throughout the Middle East are both discussed and poked fun of in this comic, despite their lack of relation to one another. In my opinion, Kelley succeeds in achieving this purpose for a number of reasons. Primarily, he succeeds because I was able to find the comic humorous, even though I don't follow football in any way whatsoever. In this sense, he appeals to his intended audience, and elicits an emotional response from him.