Comics have always been a source of entertainment for many, from reading superhero comics to anime and manga. Comics bear a power of its own, with the intense visuals and captivating plots, it has been consistently engaging the audience- both young and old. It can be a good start for teens willing to develop a reading habit and hop on a graphic novel trail. For some, a comic book bears the same significance as other books since they are visual masterpieces that transport you to a different world.
Some readers willing to go for a quick read often judge the book by its size. It is most prevalent among adults who miss out on reading or even indulge in the daily news due to the lack of time. For them, comics are the go-to books. In fact, comic journalism is a sphere that has been developing lately, solely because people are unable to devote much time to a newspaper. Comics can provide a quicker visual into the daily happenings around the world.
This type of narrative has existed since long where news organisations have used the medium of comics to broadcast real-life occurrences. Before photography came into existence, pictorial representation of current events was used and examples can be found in The Illustrated London News and The New York Times Magazine. Recently, journalists across the world are attempting to bring back the style by animating certain news events and using speech bubbles as a means of quoting someone.
For some journalists, this kind of journalism is used to narrate a personal experience like the stories about the refugee crisis or the war between Palestine and Syria. It often gets tricky and time consuming for some journalists since it involves a lot of formatting, ethical and aesthetic issues. However, these journalists chose illustration as their choice of weapon to tell their stories. They take up realistic characters to bring the incidents back to life and often they focus on historical events to avoid messing up the quote. The facial expression of a character depicted in the comic brings out the prevalent situation and impacts the reader’s perception. Even though comic journalism is somewhat equivalent to ordinary journalism, ethics that guide the other types of media are also applied here.
For a reader, reading a comic involves reading between the lines, synthesise and interpret the information that the writer is trying to convey. The visuals and texts culminate to provide the reader with a complete sensation of what situations might have been. To depict the modern scenario of the world, comics can lend out a hand to journalism. Those unable to read can try to interpret news by the visuals.
Moreover, comic journalism can be the mouthpiece in modern times to bring out the ground reality like humanising the migration stories. It goes beyond providing statistical data and breaks down the incident into individual and anonymous stories. Being able to grab more attention than ordinary journalism, comics provide better clarity and emotional resonance. They give a personalised contact when the entire world is being impersonal. It can be beneficial for the news agencies as well, for instance, The Australian gained 50,000 shares after publishing illustrative news. Comic journalism is paving a brand-new path for journalism to reach the audience and provide a better knowledge of the current scenarios of the world.
Harman Singh