​Shirin Neshat

We all view the world through what we are told through the media. Most of us are trapped in the same 10-mile radius day in, day out, and what we think about other countries, cultures and cities are influenced through what we are told in the news. This means that the world subconsciously places huge amounts of trust in journalists as what they say we end up believing – and that is the only way it can work. Without the people reporting and writing the stories, we are left in the dark. Imagine if we had no news coverage around the coronavirus – where it would it be now? How many more people would have died? How would they have known to stay safe and hygienic?

It has been this way for a long time. As technology allowed for worldwide travel, suddenly people were interested in what was going on across the sea and around the world - the word of mouth was no longer useful. So, newspapers started to be passed around. People who knew what was going on were feeding the public, satisfying their questions. And despite the numerous changes since the ‘first newspaper’, or first official newspaper, in 1665 Oxford, that principal stays the same. The public trusts what we are told in the news.

But things have changed. Newspapers are not the world’s only source of news. Social Media, websites, and television have meant it is impossible to avoid the news – everyone finds out about everything. Also, photographs have become a huge part of the news world: evidence for stories, colourful magazines – this is a big change from the old black and white drawings in newspapers.

This constant stream of news on paper can be a good thing. We can be warned, we can mourn, we can learn from other’s mistakes. However, it is also easy to start believing false news. People have started using the news for their own intentions, which is why now ‘fake news’ is such a hot topic. People have had to take a cynical eye to their only source of information about the rest of the world. But is this idea of fake news new? Arguably throughout history journalists could have written anything in their newspapers which no one could have proved to be wrong.

Geographically, news changes. What someone is told to believe in Spain will not be the same as what people are told to believe in the UK. What was Brexit to Europe compared to Brexit for the UK?

Sitting in an Art room, deciding what I was to complete my investigation on, it is easy to see why the topic or theme of news appealed to me . There is so much to explore, and it is a world that has always interested me. Over the summer, I went to the BBC for work experience, and got to see how many people were working behind the scenes to deliver the news to the public, and learnt about the inner workings of one of the biggest news organisations in the world. 

One of the most interesting parts of the news and media is the visual component; often the headlines, the clickbait, the images people see before they read an article. This is where my titular question came from: how do these images and drawings carry a message? Different posters, caricatures, satire and propaganda have varying impacts on the public, and I wanted to know why and how. So, above is a mood board featuring all the ideas that had tumbled out of my head. There are several satirical cartoons from different eras, and also shows the front pages of newspapers from different countries on the same day - exploring different reaction to Brexit day. The visual research widened my understanding of the satire and propaganda world, and to understand it further I wanted to know how it changed over time. So, in my sketchbook, I made the following double page including both visual and written research - and my own copies of this satire.