I looked around for pictures for awhile, and decided this picture was a perfect connection of my previous post and the discussion of piracy. Although this is a humourous picture, it has a very serious underlying meaning. This cartoon is most likely directed to people that are illegally downloading music, songs and videos off the internet. This chosen group of people are most likely teens and young adults, but I'm sure there are plenty of middle aged people that participate in such activities.
This cartoon is a heavily sarcastic piece to exaggerate the idea of piracy. Obviously a baby would not actually know how to put illegal dowloads on a rewritable dvd, but this cartoonist gets the point across. I think it's a good use of persuasion, especially because the parents are supporting there young child in breaking the law at such a young age. This cartoon is interesting because it really evokes two completely separate emotions. The first emotion is laughter due to irony, because a baby is doing something that adults would do. However, the second emotion comes after reading the text, and it's a kind of "Oh, I get it" realization that they are discouraging piracy.
The artist of this cartoon is painting a picture of our world's views on piracy, or at least the direction we are headed. This cartoonist is arguing that people of our world are so mislead about the truth about piracty that parents are watching their baby do illegal activities right in front of them. I think the artist could have drawn another drawing of the same family right next to this drawing; except that in this drawing the baby should be stealing something from the store and the parents would be scolding the child. This would show the way that our society incorrectly differs piracy and theft.
This is hilarious and true! Then of course when the kid gets older the parent is either oblivious to what the child is doing, or lacks interest to reprimand the kid for doing something illegal beside telling them to stop.
ReplyDeleteI like this post because it really also ties in to the whole aspect of Born Digital. It can also show that children of this generation will already at a young age begin to be able to maneuver around the internet, as well as downloading an illegal download.
ReplyDeleteGreat example of visual rhetoric! I like how you analyze that there are two "layers" to the message - the first overt layer (humor, irony) and the second more subtle message (discouraging piracy).
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