The impact of online animations

Regular viewers of the show will recognise the name Mark Fiore. He is the San Francisco-based animator whose work we often feature in the Internet Video of the Week segment of the show.

In 2010 he became the first online animator to win a Pulitzer Prize, a nod to how popular the medium has become.

Fiore is not alone – he joins a growing number of online animators who are making their own mark across the web. And they all come with the same purpose – to get their message out there.

Political cartooning has been around for a long time, but before the internet, most of it was confined to print. The first animated cartoon ever shown to the public was put on display in France in 1892. Over the following eight years more than half a million people travelled to see it. Nowadays, online animators can get those viewing figures in just a few hours.

In this week’s feature, Listening Post‘s Nic Muirhead looks at how online animators are becoming a political force to be reckoned with.

“I think animation, particularly political animation, it essentially shows what’s behind the scenes and people aren’t getting that either in the newspaper or cable news or the radio. You know you are able to bring people in with cartoons, with the fun but then serve a dose of opinion and news as well.” Mark Fiore, online animator