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Title Defamatory Political Cartoons in Pakistani Print Media: A Multimodal Analysis

Author(s) Muhammad Zulqarnain

Abstract Title: Defamatory Political Cartoons in Pakistani Print Media: A Multimodal Analysis Cartoons are a rich source of meaning. In the domain of political cartoons, cartoonists manipulate, falsify, and alter meaning-making processes to control social cognition. They exploit the various modes of communication in the cartoons to achieve their goals. The present study analyzes the cartoonist’s ideological mediation to explore the linguistic meaning-making processes in defamatory political cartoons. Kress and Van Leeuwen's Theory of Visual Grammar (1996) and Van Dijk’s Sociocognitive Approach (2006) have been used as the theoretical framework for the study. 25 political cartoons have been selected from Dawn and Minute Mirror newspapers. The cartoons were analyzed qualitatively to generate different themes. The five different themes that emerged from the data include the theme of severe or unjust criticism; the theme of manipulation; the theme of the country's reputation; the theme of humorous remarks; and the theme of spreading hate or threats. Multiple modes of visual grammar in political cartoons have been analyzed by using Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) as a method of data analysis, which links the political discourse with the social beliefs of society. This study has found that cartoonists use multiple modes of communication, including visual grammar, macro and micro social levels, and semantic and context models, to influence social cognition. This study has found that not only the visual elements of political cartoons were causing a threat to reputation and self-esteem, but textual elements also supported the cartoonist’s ideologically polarized meaning-making processes

Type Thesis/Dissertation

Faculty Languages

Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2024-03-21

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