Although voters are central to the processes of democracy, scholarly attention to voters, with few exceptions, is limited to statistical analysis of decision-making and opinionformation processes, treating voters as a mass audience or audience segment. This article argues for more nuanced interpretations of voter representations in the media. Citing key studies of news media representation, the authors explore visual representation of voters in political cartoon commentary and argue that cartoons provide a viewof voters that supports and supplements views evident in the news media but question the role of voter depictions in cartoons as sources of understanding about political publics.
The 2008 presidential campaign was noteworthy for heightening the profile of women candidates, although neither Sarah Palin nor Hillary Clinton won her race. The authors study political cartoons as texts that sharply illuminate gendered aspects of political representation. However, the findings suggest that formulaic and stereotypical representations of Palin and Clinton are subsumed by both ideological and image differences between these two women and increased gender neutrality in their representations. The authors suggest that the study of political women in the media requires fresh approaches to accommodate ideologically nuanced symbolic women and a possible erosion of gender bias in the media.
Editorial cartoons contribute to candidate image development by offering condensed and simplified metaphoric portrayals. This study identifies the rhetorical fantasia advanced by cartoonists in their metaphors about Al Gore and George Bush through five themes of leadership during the early months of Campaign 2000: character, competence, viability, independence, and charisma. The cartoons reflected overall campaign strategies by attaching character issues to Gore and competence issues to Bush. However, the campaign was over-shadowed by the outside influence of preceding presidents, calling into question the independence of the candidates, which may have fueled the ambivalent results of the election.
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