Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Selected Political Cartoons in Nigerian Newspapers
[Thesis]
Hassan, Abdullahi
Adeyanju, Dele
Kwara State University (Nigeria)
2019
112 p.
M.S.
Kwara State University (Nigeria)
2019
Over the past few decades, communication has become multimodal because a message that is multimodal is more convincing than a message that is monomodal in nature. In fact, viewer awareness and understanding increase when there is a fusion of more than one semiotic resource, because each of the semiotic resources plays its own role in developing a text or message. The study aims at analysing linguistic and non linguistic semiotic resources of selected political cartoons in two Nigerian newspapers in order to investigate how they were used to project socio-political issues. Fourteen (14) political cartoons that depicted various political activities during the 2019 general election in Nigeria were analysed using Kress and van Leeuween visual social semiotic approach to modality as theoretical framework. Results of the analysis revealed that the linguistic semiotic resource which is the textual component of the cartoon helps in complementing the meanings of the non linguistic semiotic resources. It was also observed that the linguistic semiotic resources provide the reader with the surface (semantic) meaning whereas the non linguistic resources provide the viewer with the hidden (pragmatic) meaning of what the cartoonist intends to pass across to the target audience. The study concludes that visual images are linguistic tools that can be used for interpretation and understanding of sensitive issues most especially when strong and powerful political issues are discussed.