Cartooning and Googling God and Natural Disasters: Iceland’s Volcanic Eruption and Haiti’s Earthquake

Abstract

One of the sustained threads in geography's disciplinary history is the study of human/environment relationships. Many landmark studies were conducted by those with interests in historical and cultural geography, the same groups that pioneered the study of religion in geography. More recently, the study of religion and religious topics within geography has blossomed with investigations into geopolitics, social practices and institutions, everyday life, and new migration mixes. Studying the religious content in the reporting of natural disasters illustrates one example of a topic where the religion/environment interfaces exist. I examine lead articles or hyperlinks about the January 2010 Haitian earthquake and April 2010 Icelandic volcanic eruption on the Google search engine. I also accessed and deconstructed the religious content of editorial cartoons about both disasters from major cartoon databases. Distinct differences occurred in the hyperlink and cartoon analyses. The leading hyperlinks about Haiti related to the comments Rev. Pat RobeRtson made about the country making a pact with the devil. Fewer were stories about aid and relief efforts. Conservative clerical comments also dominated Google's hyperlinks about Iceland's eruption. Religious cartoons about Haiti's adversity were predominantly about RobeRtson, mostly poking fun at him. The cartoons about Iceland were fewer and displayed more humor. This study suggests additional research topics using hyperlinks and cartoons that would enhance our studies into theological/environmental issues on the Internet as well as visualization.

Geopolítica popular del coronavirus: el poder de las viñetas editoriales de la prensa diaria

“…Dittmer (2007) estudia la relación con la construcción de la nación de comics como el de Watchmen o el del Capitán América, tema éste sobre el que volverá en extenso más adelante (Dittmer, 2013). Brunn (2010) se ocupó de la relación entre religión y medio ambiente analizando artículos y viñetas editoriales sobre dos desastres naturales ocurridos en 2010: el terremoto de Haití y la erupción volcánica de Islandia. Hammett (2010) a través del análisis de una viñeta satírica aparecida en la prensa en la que el presidente sudafricano, Jacob Zuma, se prepara a violar a la "Señora Justicia" reflexiona sobre el Estado poscolonial, la raza, el género y, en última instancia, la independencia de los tres poderes del Estado.…”