Framing comes in handy when reading editorial cartoons because when you look at how an editorial cartoon is framing a situation, it effects the whole meaning of the cartoon. According to Dr. Brenda Cooper A media frame "is the central organizing idea for a news story that supplies a context and emphasizes certain aspects of a story while minimizing or ignoring others." An example of framing can me seen in the following 2 images.
Journalistic Ethics
Political cartoon artists are not held to the same strict ethical rules that journalists are held too. They are, however responsible for the truth shown in their cartoons. Because political cartoons are supposed to be a representation of truth, cartoonists should always avoid truthiness in their cartoons.
The SPJ Code of Ethics states that: "Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues."
Just like journalists, cartoonists are to provide a fair account of events and issues in their comics, because the point of their comic is hopefully to shed light on that topic itself.
Truthiness
On January 6, 2006, the American Dialect Society announced that "truthiness" was selected as its 2005 Word of the Year. The Society described its rationale as follows:
In its 16th annual words of the year vote, the American Dialect Society voted truthiness as the word of the year. First heard on The Colbert Report, a satirical mock news show on the Comedy Central television channel, truthiness refers to the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true. As Stephen Colbert put it, "I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart.".
