Innovating the Narrative: A study into the emerging genre of Graphic Journalism Dr. Afshana Syeda1, Din Heeba2 1Sr. Assistant Professor, Kashmir University, Media Education Research Centre 2Doctoral Scholar, Kashmir University, Media Education Research Centre Online published on 2 September, 2019. Abstract The rise of visual culture and subsequent demise of print culture has raised many questions with regard to both the future of journalism as well as political cartooning. However examples of award winning and critically acclaimed journalistic comic books like Joe Sacco‘s ‘Footnotes in Gaza‘, Art Spiegelman‘s ‘ Maus‘ and illustrated storytelling formats adopted by leading newspapers like New York Times; points to the emergence of new format of storytelling in Journalism-Graphic/comic Journalism. According to Dan Archer comic journalism or graphic journalism is an umbrella term that covers any approach using both words and images together as opposed to the conventional form of text with separate illustrations. Although visual narrative storytelling has existed for thousands of years, the use of comic as a media to cover real life events for news organizations is at a all time peak; highlighting both innovation in the format of storytelling as well as a much needed step taken to survive in the global visual culture. This study will aim to analyze this emerging genre of journalism and highlight the trend of using illustrative storytelling by leading news organization as a precursor to new and innovative format of journalism that is often referred to as future of journalism. The study will critically examine Joe Sacco‘s journalistic comic book, ‘ Footnotes in Gaza‘ a book based on the conversations with Palestinians in Rafah and the neighboring town of Khan Younis, interweaving the events of 1956 with the events in Rafah at the time of the interviews(the bulldozing of homes, the death of Rachel Corrie and the reactions to the outbreak of the Iraq War), along with that award winning illustrative piece by Centre for Investigative Journalism; ‘In Jennifer‘s room‘, which details the sexual abuse at Californian mental facility and ‘Inside Death row‘, a five five-part graphics journalism series from The New York Times ’Opinion section, which takes readers on a journey with editorial cartoonists Chappatte and hiswife, journalist Anne-Frédérique Widmann, telling the story of 4 prisoners on a death row. These journalistic graphical accounts will be taken as at the main sample to try to get a basic understanding of this new innovative genre. Advantages, disadvantages as well as the audience response to the stories will also be studied to get a more inclusive insight into the field of graphic journalism. The main focus of the study is to locate the advent of graphic journalism in context with the decline in both print culture as well as political cartooning and establish whether in the new age global visual culture, is graphic/comic journalism the way forward for journalism. Top Keywords Graphic Journalism, Visual Culture, Footnotes in Gaza, In Jennifer‘s Room. Top |