Political cartoonist, Anthony Garner, pointed out the keys of his work in a conference at University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia.“I usually focus on a news item and I try to communicate an idea about it through a picture” this is how the political cartoonist, Anthony Garner, explained the way in which he works in a conference for Journalism students at the University of Vic which took place last Wednesday. Anthony, who is living in Barcelona and is now working for different media like the newspaper “Diari Ara”, “El Jueves” magazine or the TV programme of the Catalan television “Els Matins”, started his talk with a clear statement: without freedom of speech there is no democracy. The rest of the presentation consisted in the explanation of how Garner thinks and creates his pictures, and it finished with a little exercise for the students who attended, who became cartoonists for an hour.
Garner said that he uses cartoons to reflect his opinions on different issues. To demonstrate, he showed different examples of cartoons that he has drawn recently about different news topics, especially the Ukrainian war. “You have to think also how the reader is going to respond and if they share your point of view.” added Garner, whose pictures of the war in Ukraine, for example, showed a really critical and strongly opposite view of Putin and Russia, but also of some NATO leaders.
During the last hour of the conference, the students created two drawings about the topic of social media, showing both points of view: for and against its use. The exercise showed good results that Garner approved, in a activity aimed at developing creativity and also waking up the critical view of the future communicators.
Garner gave general tips on how to communicate and talk about different current affairs. On one hand, he pointed out the importance on taking into account the context of the different news. On the other hand, he also pointed out the negative view of the communication work. “In the context of work, you usually have to adapt your discourse to match the ideology of the media you are working for” he admitted. After all, he gave a masterclass not only about cartooning but also communication and the importance of being aware of the different news stories and being critical when you explain them.
*Notícia escrita per l’alumne Lluc Coromines
