Word of caution: Be careful with opinion pieces that tend to analyse and summarise or explain a problem. Be careful with a piece that provides length backgrounds.
You must hunt more assiduously for viewpoints; otherwise, you will get dragged into analysis; in this case the “purpose” and “positioning” impacts and effects become increasingly generic/general (and text-book definition-style) rather than analytically-specific.
Leunig’s cartoon
- Establish the viewpoint?
- Which technique best supports the viewpoint?
- Which words have an analytical story?
For/ Against
In his cartoon, Leunig criticises mothers who are not paying attention to their children.
Leunig discredits phone-obsessed mothers who ignore their children.
Leunig recommends that mothers interact more with their children and avoid screen-related distractions.
Argument techniques:
Leunig juxtaposes graphic images of the mother and the child. (Explain.)
Poem: Third person prose/alliteration etc.
Purpose: to shock and shame mothers who are not focussed on their children.
Ms Margaret Smith
Ms Smith supports Leunig’s representation of mothers.
Ms Smith also recommends that phone-obsessed parents change their parenting styles; they must do more to celebrate the “joys” of childhood and tune into real-time/nature.
Ms Smith condemns phone-obsessed parents.
Techniques:
Ms Smith appeals to duty of care and a sense of parental responsibility. She depicts phone obsessed parents as poor role models;
Techniques: Real-life; relatable /lived examples of a mother or father;
Purpose: to show a pattern of behaviour that reveals an excessive number of distractions.
Purpose: Ms Smith uses an example of both a mother and a father to show that Leunig is not sexist (credibility factors)
Problem: technology-driven distractions creates an image of disengaged, disconnected and unhappy families; (explore the range of emotions associated with a “problem”)
Call to action: Ms Smith implores/exhorts parents to change their pattern of interaction and behaviour so that they spend more face-to-face time with children.
Cross-referencing to cartoon: the image of forlorn and unhappy children. (For cross-referencing purposes) if there is a cartoon or a visual; match up the written and the visual images, ie. the child lying on the footpath.
Tone and attitude/purpose and position: mocking and shaming techniques directed at parents; defensive towards Leunig/ sarcastic and critical of parents who are disengaged.
Sue Johnson
Dr Johnson criticises Leunig and all those who, she believes, chauvinistically scapegoat (demonise) mothers as tech-obsessed.
At the basis of her critical opinion are a series of typical daily life lived examples/experiences chores to tap into the weary and difficult mindset of a mother.
Tip: There is always a specific audience attached to “real-life” and relatable examples. (ie. those mothers who are juggling many of these tensions and competing problems.)
Purpose: Dr Johnson expects that such mothers will feel a sense of outrage and anger that they are being scapegoated.
Purpose: (reassuring tactics/opposite of guilt and shame) Dr Johnson uses these typical real-life scenarios to reassure mothers and to justify their use of the phone.
Cross-referencing: the visual image could also link to the forlorn child – “tantrum”.
Purpose: to shame Leunig and his supporters; to point out that he appears to be making a quick and faulty assumption after seeing a mother on her phone and not realising that there may be legitimate reasons for her to have that phone call at a particular point in time.
Terminology: purpose and positioning
Problem: the demonising of mothers.
Solution: to reassure mothers; she justifies why one might be on the phone; she seeks to empower mothers; shed a light on their struggles to justify why they might use their phone; she seeks to validate a mother’s concerns; seeks to assuage possible feelings of guilt.
Call to action: exhorts like-minded critics to show greater tolerance/sensitivity towards the problems that mothers may be experiencing in their daily life
She prevails upon mothers and parents to understand their concerns and not to resort to hasty conclusions that disadvantage mothers.