A semiotic study of political cartoon strips in The Nation National Daily

Abstract

Communication is a very important means of exchanging ideas and the ability to communicate effectively is necessary to carry out the thoughts and visions of every individual, group or nation. Consequentially, communicators especially cartoonists have made vigorous efforts to portray the society by familiarizing people with ongoing events in the societies through cartoons. This paper explores the sign of cartoon strips and examines how they are used in communicating message(s). Using a semiotic frame work, it presents a method of interpreting and gaining meaning into cartoons. The purpose of this paper is to help people who have great interest in cartoons to better understand cartoons and also answer questions raised in the paper which include; Are cartoons a true representation of current political parties, personalities and situations?, Do cartoon strips like other signs have both denotative and connotative meanings?, Do cartoon have the potentials for more than one interpretation/meaning?, can cartoons be understood better using the semiotic frame work?, The paper also presents the semiotic codes used in cartooning. Finally, the paper advances the analysis of verbal and non-verbal codes like cartoons as important medium of communication.

A Semiotic Study of Contemporary Middle Eastern Internal Dilemmas in Arab News Cartoons

“…Each of these theories elucidates the various features of signs presented in the visuals in different ways, but overall the agenda is the same, i.e., comprehension and interpretation of the core narrative. Many studies have also been carried out on the semiotic analysis of cartoons, for example, Lulu et al (2022), Hasanah and Hidayat (2020), Mohamed Ahmed (2020), Tyumbu (2018), Al-Momani, Badarneh, and Migdadi (2017), etc. Lulu et al (2022) investigated how political cartoons represented the displacement issue of the Palestinian nation by using visual signs and symbols.…”

“…He found that these political caricatures effectively conveyed the newspapers' concerns for the election candidates by relating them to traditional Egyptian signs like a genie, lamp, devil, etc. Another study was carried out by Tyumbu (2018) on the selected newspaper cartoon strips to identify the use of signifiers and signifieds in creating meaning. The study's findings indicate that political cartoons serve as a means of decoding signals, allowing cartoonists to comment on contemporary political topics and actors.…”

An Analysis of Lexical Creativity and Humor in English Web-based Gag Cartoons

“…Even humor is a genre for which lexical creativity is suitable to be employed since it can be used to make humor funnier and draw more attention (Fägersten, 2020). Furthermore, the previous studies of Al-Momani, Badarneh, and Migdadi (2017), Hajjaj (2018), Hasanah and Hidayat (2020), Tyumbu (2018), and Robingah (2020) emphasized the semiotic analysis and visual literacy due to cartoons' modes of communication. In fact, language in cartoons can appear in various forms as it is used to convey humor and its images.…”