cartoons are informational

Due to shows such as South Park and Family Guy, people are given alternate resources for pop culture and news. South Park is notorious for putting pop culture events and popular views in the limelight. Let’s take the infamous Indiana Jones episode. We all know that Indiana Jones’ latest adventure was not the greatest, so with that, South Park made an episode about Indy getting raped by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. This is funny, controversial and true at the same time. As Americans, we all felt that Lucas and Spielberg “raped” Indiana Jones by making such a terrible movie. In South Park, we get to see that…and laugh about it.

From what I’ve noticed, Family Guy takes a different approach to cover universal subjects. In one instance, the Griffin family encounters the “wonders” of welfare checks. In this episode, Peter gets fired from his factory job and is too embarrassed to tell his wife, so he applies for welfare without her knowing. He then receives a check for $150,000 every week by mail. Although his dog tells him that the welfare committee made a mistake and argues that he is stealing from “American tax payers,” Peter decides that welfare is a blessing and spends his money freely. When his wife finds out that he has not been given a raise at work and that they are actually on welfare, she flips out and explains that welfare is only for individuals who have a disability or lack of education, etc. As Peter learns about welfare, so do we. “Stealing from American tax payers is bad.”

complications with interviews

So I thought that I had an edge. I e-mailed both PETA2 and the Animal Liberation press office a week in advance of my article's due date. I figured that they would take a couple days to respond, so I didn't really worry about it when they hadn't responded over night.

Fast forward to Sunday, three days before my article is due and I have yet to hear back from them. This is a problem.

Nervous, I decided that I would have to take action very quickly. I decided to interview students and a teacher instead. This, for the most part, worked out; just not the way I had hoped.

I see where journalism becomes very difficult. Interviewee's are unpredictable. Deadlines... are not. I just hope that in the future when I'm dealing with large companies I'll make sure to send them the questions a month in advance.

Oh, the funny thing about PETA2 and the Animal Liberation press interviews is that they eventually did respond to my emails... a couple days after the assignment was due.