![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Recent years have seen the rise of a new genre in news coverage: comics journalism. It combines journalistic techniques with the use of comics as a medium. Instead of reporting verbally, journalists draw the news. However, if journalists use a medium for news coverage that is associated with fiction, how will readers know whether the comics journalists are telling the truth, whether their reports are not fictional? Results of our qualitative content analysis show: journalists employ several visual strategies in their comics to appear authentic and reliable. Authentication strategies are: the author’s presence, physical resemblance, stylistic devices, documentary evidence, and the meta-story of the comic. To better understand the tricky relationship between comics and journalism, we contextualise the emergence of comics journalism by looking back into the history of comics and graphic novels and discussing the journalistic principles of truthfulness and objectivity as well as the inherent subjectivity of comics journalism. The paper concludes with an outlook on future developments.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Wang Ziyan Amanda, a student at the School of Art, Design and Media (ADM) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, for supporting us in conducting research on comics journalism.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. Although Sacco is often considered as the pioneering comics journalist, his work Palestine has has raised controversy as to whether it can be called journalism or better be designated as a graphic novel (Woo Citation2010).
2. Often, comics journalism is also referred to as graphic journalism. However, the term graphic refers to a wide range of different visuals and, therefore, entails many connotations. For example, Stovall uses the term graphics journalism and defines it as ‘a specialized form of journalism that uses graphic forms to present information’ (Stovall Citation2005). Stovall focuses more on information graphics, charts and maps, and less on illustrations like comics. Therefore, we prefer the more precise term, comics journalism to graphic journalism.
3. In our research we are referring only to comics journalism that primarily relies on drawing as a mode of expression. As with all comics, photographs can be (and often are) used as a reference, but they are transformed through various artistic techniques, making the artistic ‘handwriting’ an essential component of communication and perception. A few comics we are referring to alternate actual photographs and drawn interpretations, but that makes the role of drawing only more evident through immediate comparison.
4. In this paper, we cannot go further into this discussion. For the simmering discourse on the relevance of objectivity as a criterion in journalism see (Riordan Citation2014; Sambrook Citation2014; Epp Citation2014; Neuberger and Kapern Citation2013; Rosen Citation2013, 146 ff., Weinberger Citation2009).
5. For instance: http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/; http://www.archcomix.com/; http://illuspress.com http://www.cartoonmovement.com/comic (accessed 31 October 2014).
6. Published in The Guardian under the title ‘Not in my country: A tale of unwanted immigrants’, 17 July 2010. The Unwanted appeared also in: Virginia Quarterly Review, Winter 2010 (part I), Spring 2010 (part II).
7. The Other War, in Guatemala City, English version: http://www.graphicjournalism.com/bdthe-other-war-in-guatemala-city/ (accessed 7 December 2015).
8. It is worth mentioning that Eisner has demonstrated the ability of comics to deliver information – including technical details – with great clarity. He has spent most of his professional life creating instructional comics for the US Army mainly for the PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly Magazine (cf. Rall Citation2013, 181).
9. The term long-form journalism is being discussed controversially and has not yet been defined. Long-form journalism refers to longer articles and features – particularly online – with a larger amount of content, e.g. New York Times, The Guardian, Tagesanzeiger, Narratively.
10. Literature dealing with creative nonfiction, literary journalism, and the line between fact and fiction: e.g. Eberwein Citation2013; Sims Citation2007; Greenberg Citation2007; Hartsock Citation2000; Clark Citation2001.
11. The term mark making describes the different lines, patterns and textures in an artwork.
12. Burwen adapted Stephen Kinzer’s book, All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror. CIA: Operation Ajax retells the story on the Iranian coup d’état in 1953. In Mein Vater, ein Werwolf, the German reporter Cordt Schnibben tells the story of his father, a member of the National Socialist guerrilla movement who had murdered a peasant because this peasant had criticised Hitler.
13. http://www.nextmediaanimation.com/us/news_direct.php (accessed 13 November 2015).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Wibke Weber
Wibke Weber is Professor in the IAM Institute of Applied Media Studies at Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW). Her research focuses on visual storytelling, genre studies, multimodal discourse analysis, and convergent journalism. She is editor and co-author of the book Kompendium Informationsdesign (Springer 2008) and of the book Interaktive Infografiken (Springer 2013). Moreover, she is reviewer of several international conferences and journals.
Hans-Martin Rall
Hans-Martin Rall is a tenured Associate Professor for animation at the School of Art, Design and Media (ADM) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He is also a renowned director of independent animated short films. His research interests are mainly in the areas of adaptation for animation, sequential visual storytelling, and interdisciplinary research in art and technology. In his artistic work and theoretical research he has specialized on the adaptation of literature for animation. His films have been screened worldwide in over 350 film festivals and won 45 international awards. His book Animation: Konzept und Produktion has been published by Universitätsverlag Konstanz (2015).