Analysis of the Readings of Journalistic Caricatures by University Students

Abstract

This article collects the conceptions built through the journalistic caricatures published in Colombian mass media, and the way in which university students re-signify or appropriate said communicative product. After reviewing the conceptual elements about this product of the journalistic genre of opinion in which its types, categories, uses, graphic resources used and the impact they have on the construction of reality are defined, an instrument was applied to 150 university students, with whom the study analyzed the way of reading cartoons to identify changes in understanding, mood, and type of reception to the iconic information recorded there through a measurement instrument based on aspects of the Likert scale so that the participants could qualify a group of 10 cartoons published in different media. We sought to understand the way in which the public object re-signifies or appropriates said journalistic product and the impact it has on the way of reading events. It is concluded that the journalistic genre of opinion and caricature, as one of its expressions, maintains a close relationship with the way in which university students understand their context, but the existing gap between information and this age group is confirmed. It was found that young people who watch cartoons use them to reaffirm their convictions but little to make interpretations of reality that are dissimilar to their own.