A critical discourse analysis on english political cartoons

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---***--- NGUYỄN THU PHƯƠNG A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS ON ENGLISH POLITICAL CARTOONS PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN PHÊ PHÁN VỀ TRANH BIẾM HỌA CHÍNH TRỊ TIẾN

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

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NGUYỄN THU PHƯƠNG

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS ON ENGLISH

POLITICAL CARTOONS (PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN PHÊ PHÁN VỀ TRANH

BIẾM HỌA CHÍNH TRỊ TIẾNG ANH)

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

-*** -

NGUYỄN THU PHƯƠNG

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS ON ENGLISH

POLITICAL CARTOONS (PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN PHÊ PHÁN VỀ TRANH

BIẾM HỌA CHÍNH TRỊ TIẾNG ANH)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II ABSTRACT III LIST OF ABBREVIATION IV TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART A INTRODUCTION 1

1 RATIONALE 1

2 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 3

3 AIMS OF THE STUDY 3

4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 3

5 METHODS OF THE STUDY 3

6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY 4

PART B DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER1.LITERATUREREVIEW 6

1.1 Theories on Critical Discourse Analysis 6

1.1.1 What is Critical Discourse Analysis? 6

1.1.2 CDA’s characteristics 8

1.1.3 Principles and Aims of CDA 9

1.1.4 Power and Dominance 11

1.2 Background knowledge about Cartoons 13

1.2.1 What are Cartoons and Political Cartoons? 13

1.2.2 General characteristics of Political Cartoons 14

1.2.3 Purpose of Political Cartoons 15

CHAPTER2.METHODOLOGY 16

2.1 Data Collection Methods 16

2.2 Data Analysis Procedures 17

CHAPTER3.PRESENTATIONANDDISCUSIONOFTHERESULTS 20

3.1 Data Analysis 20

3.2 Discussion 40

PART C CONCLUSION 44

1 CONCLUSION E RROR ! B OOKMARK NOT DEFINED 2 LIMITATIONS 46

3 RECOMMENDATIONS 46

REFERENCES

APPENDIX

PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

There is one question that has particularly fascinated people for thousands of years, whether our languages can reflect or reinforce our ways of looking at the world and if so, how? It is usually taken for granted that there exits the purely objective language and differs from our experience and attitude However, it is well-known now that language use is an inherently social phenomenon How we speak depends on such factors as where we grew up, our racial and ethnic identity, whether we are women or men, and our education

And we now also understand that successful reading of journalistic discourse as well as graphics remains at a much higher level than just how language is used For second language readers, this process is complicated by the fact that these readers often rely on sociocultural conventions of their native language, which is source of misunderstanding between Vietnamese readers and others of a language Thus, the readers must not only acquire the correct forms and sounds of the target language, but also the knowledge of how language is used in the culture, especially for reading pictures, images or cartoons which is understood mainly on graphics and social context and language

Though critical thinking and text analysis are as old as language itself, critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a relatively new addition to the varieties of text analysis available CDA is a perspective on critical scholarship: a theory and a method of analyzing that individuals and institutions use language Critical discourse analysts focus “on social problems and especially the role o discourse in the production and reproduction of power abuse or domination” (van Dijk, 1999) CDA starts by identifying social problem, choose the perspective of those who suffer most and critically analyses those in power, those who are responsible and those who have the means and the opportunity to solve such problem In response to social inequality and the abuse of power, CDA demands “politically involved research with an emancipatory

requirement” (Titscher et al., 2000:147) Such an approach inevitably means that CDA takes

an overt moral and political position with regard to the social problem analyzed CDA can provide an insightful look into an authentic text, so that readers engage with the content critically at the same time as they attempt to understand other more superficial aspects of the text For instances, readers may confront texts of a possibly xenophobic nature to explore the discourse mechanisms of racism In short, with the aim of dealing with social problems by means of language, Critical Discourse Analysis, defined as discourse analysis “with an attitude” (van Dijk) has been in existence for several decades and has helped uncover the ideological assumptions that are hidden within texts It is a useful tool in language use analysis contributing positively to the process of struggling for power equality

Having gone through a long history to be an important industry as well as a social and psychological reflection, cartoons appear to be a very potential and appealing source of material because in cartoons people have a freedom to employ pragmatic strategies that allow them play to with words and drawings to achieve various communicative effects Most dictionary definitions tend to use the word “humorous” when describing cartoons, but this does not always have to be the case Certain cartoons, especially for political cartoons are not humorous at all, but are making serious messages about certain issues that the artist finds important Obviously, cartoons can supply people with a very rich of information about the native countries, people‟s lifestyles and culture differences

Having these in mind, I choose to carry out a case study on English political cartoons in the light of Critical Discourse Analysis in an attempt to find out hidden political opinions in cartoons This paper also hopefully examines to what extent Vietnamese readers of English are able to interpret English cartoons and the way in which they differ from native readers of English in their interpretation of the cartoons Then, it draws some causes of misunderstanding and gives some suggestions for better communication

2 Scope of the Study

The study of CDA on English Political Cartoons is confined to linguistic devices and symbolism of the cartoons under study and their conversational implicatures in relation to everyday life or political context although the author is well aware that the global context at the time cartoons were published and the gender of cartoons writer are certain important

3 Aims of the Study

The objectives of the study on English Political Cartoons from CDA standpoint include:

- To provide a theoretical background of CDA- its concepts, its analysis procedures as well as its role in linguistics

- To find out hidden political opinions in the English Political Cartoons

- To investigate the extent to which Vietnamese readers of English understand the messages embedded in English Political cartoons

4 Research Questions

In order to realize these above aims, the case study is supposed to answer the following research questions:

- How are political opinions embedded in English Political Cartoons?

- Do Vietnamese readers of English understand what is intended to be conveyed via the cartoons?

- What are the causes of misunderstanding?

5 Methods of the Study

According to Ruth Wodak and Michael Meyer (2001), CDA does not constitute a well-defined empirical method but rather a cluster of approaches Fairclough (2001) also stated that the choice of appropriate methods (data selection, collection and analysis) depends on the object

of research CDA entails some form of detailed textual analysis It specially includes a

combination of interdiscursive analysis of texts (i.e of how different genres, discourses and styles are articulated together) and linguistic and other forms of semiotic analysis In other words, CDA is just an approach which is highly eclectic; therefore in this study a bundle of different techniques is employed to achieve the goal set from the beginning

The main methods of the case study are the quantitative and qualitative ones, as well as explanatory and contrastive analysis All the considerations, remarks, comments and assumptions are largely based on data analysis

6 Organization of the Study

The study includes three parts as follows:

Part A: Introduction, presents the rationale, the aims, the scope and the methods of the study

as well as the organization of the study

Part B: Development, the main part of the thesis and consists of three chapters:

- Chapter 1: Literature review

This chapter discusses the theoretical background related to Critical Discourse Analysis

Of course, it focuses on definition of CDA, its characteristics, principles and aims of CDA Later part deals with the concepts of discourse and power Then, coming to the background knowledge about cartoons, in general and political cartoons, in particular Some general characteristics and purpose of political cartoons are mentioned in the last part of this chapter

- Chapter 2: Methodology

This chapter first restates the three research questions then gives the detailed description of the study, which includes data collection instrument, subjects and data collection procedure

- Chapter 3: Presentation and Discussion of the results

This is the main part of the thesis with the data analysis which presents the results and depth discussions, and then an overall picture is given by synthesizing all the major findings and discussing them

in-Part C: Conclusion, summarizes the major findings and also deals with the limitation of the

study as well as suggests the further study

Apart from the three main parts, the two survey questionnaires (one for native readers and one for non-native readers) are also included as appendix

PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1.Theories on Critical Discourse Analysis

1.1.1 What is Critical Discourse Analysis?

In the 1970s, while linguistic research was still focused on formal aspects of language, sentences and components of sentences were still regarded as the basic units, there emerged a form of discourse and text analysis that recognized the role of language in structuring power relations in society This new approach to linguistic research drew the attention of many researchers, among them the most prominent are Kress, van Dijk, Fairclough, Wodak and so

on In fact, Wokad (2001) provides a summary of different studies conducted by these researchers Their work serves to explain and illustrate the main assumptions, principles and procedures of what had then become known as Critical Linguistics or CDA In recent years, there has been much written about CDA in its broadest sense It appears to be quite difficult to define in simple terms and this is probably due to the nature of CDA

What makes CDA different from other forms of discourse analysis is “the critical point of view” “Critical” means not taking things for granted, opening up complexity, challenging reductionism, dogmatism and dichotomies, being self-reflective in research, and through these processes, making opaque structures of power relations and ideologies manifest “Critical”, thus, does not imply the common sense meaning of “being negative” rather “skeptical” Proposing alternatives is also part of being “critical” (Ruth Wodak in a conversation with Gavin Kendall, 2007)

The concept of CDA has been discussed for long CDA encompasses a number of general tenets and uses a large range of techniques In simple words, Van Dijk (1988) defines CDA as

“CDA is concerned with studying and analyzing written texts and spoken words to reveal the

discursive sources of power, dominance, inequality, and bias and how these sources are initiated, maintained, reproduced, and transformed within specific social, economic, political and historical contexts”

Fairclough (1997) also provided us with an useful definition that encapsulated most other definition of CDA: “CDA is the study of often opaque relationship of causality and determination between (a) discursive practices, events and texts, and (b) wider social and cultural structures, relations and processes, to investigate how such practices, events and texts arise out of and are ideologically shaped by relations of power and struggles over power, and

to explore how the opacity of these relationships between discourse and society is itself a factor securing power”

In general, the answer to such (critical) questions as “What is critical discourse analysis?”,

“How is it different from other types of discourse analysis?”, “What are its aims, special methods?” and especially “What is its theoretical foundation?” require a study of the relations between discourses, power, dominance, social inequality and the position of the discourse analyst in such social relationships

Although there are many directions in the study and critique of social inequality, the way we approach these questions and dimensions is by focusing on the role of discourse in the reproduction and challenge of dominance Dominance is defined here as the exercise of social power by elites, institutions or groups, that results in social inequality, including political, cultural, class, ethnic, racial and gender inequality This reproduction process may involve such different modes of discourse-power relations as the more or less direct or overt support, enactment, representation, legitimation, denial, mitigation or concealment of dominance, among others More specially, critical discourse analysts want to know what structures, strategies or other properties of text, talk, verbal interaction or communicative events play a role in these modes of reproduction Then, according to Van Dijk (1993), critical discourse analysis is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way social power

abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context With such dissident research, critical discourse analysts take explicit position, and thus want to understand, expose, and ultimately resist social inequality.”

1.1.2 CDA’s characteristics

According to Meyer, M (2001), an approach normally obtains and maintains its identities by distinguishing itself from other approaches Likewise, distinguishing CDA from other sociolinguistic approaches provides us with some distinct characteristics of CDA as follows:

Firstly, the nature of the problems with which CDA is concerned is different in principle from all those methods which do not determine their methods in advance In respect of the object of investigation, CDA follows a different and a critical approach to problems This is because it endeavors to make explicit power relationships that are frequently hidden, and thereby to derive results that are of practical relevance In general, CDA asks different research questions CDA scholars play an advocatory role for groups who suffer from social discrimination

Secondly, in comparison with other sociolinguistic approaches, CDA is open to the broadest range of factors that exert an influence on texts These comprises of such extra linguistic factors as cultural, society and ideology This characteristic originates from the assumption that all discourses are historical and can therefore only be understood with reference to their context The notion of context is crucial for CDA in all cases since this explicitly includes social-psychological, political and ideological components and thereby postulates an interdisciplinary procedure

Thirdly, from the notion of context, a further different emerges concerning the assumption about the relationship between language and society CDA does not take this relationship to be simply deterministic but evokes an idea of mediation There is a difference between the various approaches to discourse Norman Faiclough defines the relationship in accordance

with Halliday‟s multifunctional linguistic theory and the concept of orders of discourse while van Dijk introduces a sociocognitive level This kind of mediation between language and society is absent from many other linguistic approaches, such as, for example, conversation analysis

A further distinguish feature of CDA is the specific incorporation of linguistic categories into its analysis CDA in no way includes a very broad range of linguistic categories It can be assumed that a small range of linguistic devices is central for CDA studies In principle, categories like dexis and pronouns can be analyzed in any linguistic method but they are crucial for CDA Explicitly or implicitly, CDA makes use of a concept of the so-called linguistic surface

Another characteristic of CDA is its interdisciplinary claim and its description of the object of investigation from widely differing perspective as well as its continuous feedback between analysis and data collection Compared with other linguistic methods of text analysis, CDA seems to be closets to sociological and socio-psychological perspectives, although these interfaces are not well defined everywhere

To sum up, with a critical approach to problems under investigation and a multidisciplinary approach to study, CDA takes into account different extra linguistic factors such as culture, society and ideology There is also kind of mediation in the relationship between language and society in CDA‟s view These features make CDA distinctive from other types of discourse analysis

1.1.3 Principles and Aims of CDA

Titscher et al (2000), using the work of Wodak (1996), summarize the general principles of CDA as follows:

- CDA is concerned with social problems It is concerned with language or language use, but with the linguistic character of social and cultural processes and structures

- Power-relations have to do with discourse, and CDA studies both power in discourse and power over discourse

- Society and culture are dialectically related to discourse: society and culture are shaped

by discourse, and at the same time constitute discourse Every single instances of language use reproduces or transforms society and culture, including power relations

- Language use may be ideological To determine this it is necessary to analyze texts to investigate their interpretation, reception and social effects

- Discourses are historical and can only be understood in relation to their context At a metatheoretical level this corresponds to the approach of Wittgenstein, according to which the meaning of an utterance rests in its usage in a specific situation

- Discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory Critical analysis implies a systematic methodology and a relationship between the text and its social conditions, ideologies and power-relations (Wodak, 1996:17-20, cited in Titscher et al., 2000:146)

Among them, CDA is the most interested and motivated by pressing social issues, which it hopes to better understand through discourse analysis Since serious social problems are naturally complex, this usually also means a multidisciplinary approach, in which distinctions between theory, description and application become less relevant This focus on fundamental understanding of social problems such as dominance and inequality does not mean ignoring theoretical issues On the contrary, without complex and highly sophisticated theories no such understanding is possible Central to this theoretical endeavour is the analysis of the complex relationships between dominance and discourse

Critical discourse analysis is far from easy It is by far the toughest challenge in the discipline

As suggested above, it requires multidisciplinary, and an account of intricate relationships between text, talk, social cognition, power, society and culture Its adequacy criteria are not merely observational, descriptive or even explanatory Ultimately, its success is measured by its effectiveness and relevance, that is, but its contribution to change

In short, in seeking to accomplish these goals, CDA investigates, and aims at illustrating, “a relationship between the text and its social conditions, ideologies and power-relations”

1.1.4 Power and Dominance

Tischer et al (2000:151) suggest that when tackling CDA, “questions of power are of central interest” since “power and ideologies may have an effect on each of the contextual levels” of production, consumption and understanding of discourse CDA engages with, analyses and critiques social power and how this is represented and, both explicitly and implicitly,

reproduced in the news But what is social power?

Power is another incredibly slippery concept and the subject of seemingly endless academic discussion about what it exactly is and what is exactly means Indeed, along with discourse and ideology, power is an essentially contestable concept- a concept whose meaning and application is inherently a matter of dispute (Gallie, 1955) Social power is based on privileged access to socially values resources, such as wealth, income, position, status, force, group membership, education or knowledge Power involves control, namely by (members of) one group over (those of) other groups Such control may pertain to action and cognition: that is, a powerful group many limit the freedom of actions of others, but also influence their minds (Van Dijk, 1997)

Besides the elementary resource to force to directly control action (as in police violence against demonstrators, or male violence against women), modern and often more effective power is mostly cognitive, and enacted by persuasion, dissimulation or manipulation, among other strategic ways to change the mind of others in one‟s own interests It is at this crucial point where discourse and critical discourse analysis come in: managing the mind of others is essentially a function of text and talk through such mind management is not always bluntly manipulative On the contrary dominance may be enacted and reproduced by subtle, routine, everyday forms of text and talk that appear natural and quite acceptable Hence, CDA also

needs to focus on the discursive strategies that legitimate control, or otherwise naturalize the social order, and especially relations of inequality (Fairclough, 1985)

Despite such complexities and subtleties of power relations, critical discourse analysis is specially interested in power abuse, that is, in breaches of laws, rules and principles of democracy, equality and justice by those who wield power For CDA, language is not powerful on its own-it gains power by the use powerful people make of it Power does not derive from language, but language can be used to challenge power, to subvert is, a alter distributions of power in the short and the long term This explains why CDA often chooses the perspective of those who suffer and critically analyses the language use of those in power; those who are responsible for the existence of inequalities and who have the means and the opportunity to improve conditions In agreement with its Critical Theory predecessors, CDA emphasizes the need for interdisciplinary work in order to gain a proper understanding of how language function in constituting and transmitting knowledge, in organizing social institutions

or in exercising power

To distinguish such power from legitimate and acceptable forms of power, and lacking another

adequate term, the term “dominance” is used Dominance may be more or less consciously or

explicitly exercised or experienced Many more or less forms of dominance seem to be so persistent that they seem natural until they begin to be challenged, as was/is the case of the dominated can be influenced in such a way that they accept dominance, and act in the interest

of the powerful out of their own free will We use the term hegemony (Gramsci, 1971; Hall et al., 1977) One major function of dominant discourse is precisely to manufacture such consensus, acceptance and legitimacy of dominance (Herman and Chomsky, 1988)

The concept of hegemony, and its associated concepts of consensus, acceptance and the management of the mind, also suggests that a critical analysis of discourse and dominance is far from straightforward, and does not always imply a clear picture of villains and victims Indeed, we have already suggested that many forms of dominance appear to be jointly

produced through intricate forms of social interaction, communication and discourse It is hoped that critical discourse analysis will be able to contribute to our understanding of such intricacies

1.2 Background knowledge about Cartoons

1.2.1 What are Cartoons and Political Cartoons?

The word cartoon has various meanings, based on several very different forms of visual art and illustration The term has evolved over time

The original meaning was in fine art and there cartoon meant a preparatory drawing for a piece

of art such as a painting or tapestry

The somewhat more modern meaning was that of humorous illustrations in magazines and newspapers Even more recently there are now several contemporary meanings, including creative visual work for print media, for electronic media, and even animated films and animated digital media

When the word cartoon is applied to print media, it most often refers to a humorous panel drawing or gag cartoon, most of which have captions and do not use speech balloons The word cartoon is not often used to refer to a comic strip

single-Cartoons were not part of the daily news until the late nineteenth century, when technological advances made reproduction faster, cheaper and easier According to one account, the cartoon that appeared on the front page of the New York World on October 30, 1884, by Walt McDougall carried the trend forward The cartoon ran across the full width of the paper‟s front page, equal in space to the articles, but stronger in impact Editorial cartoons, also referred to

as political cartoons, serve as a visual commentary on current events Usually satirical rather than merely humorous in nature, they may communicate the political viewpoint of the cartoonist or add depth to an editorial opinion article in a newspaper or magazine

1.2.2 General characteristics of Political Cartoons

Political cartoons thrive on hyperbole and exaggeration, and, to a lesser degree, humor

Symbolism is also heavily used For example, instead of drawing the entire Republican Party, American political cartoonists use a work-around such as drawing an elephant, which takes up far less space than thousands upon thousands of white conservatives and their Latino lackeys

Symbolism also allows political cartoons to reach a broader audience: while people with college educations might nearly giggle when a cartoon Jack Abram off gives a sack of money

to an elephant, illiterate high-school dropouts might nearly chuckle at the thought of giving an elephant a sack of money

Political cartoons are also animated through visual analogies that imply a likeness between the event portrayed in the image and the issue on which the cartoonist is making comment Although many kinds of analogies can be used, meanings arise as the reader is able to recognize and interpret them This becomes difficult, though, when a cartoon's analogy is drawn from contemporary or historical events, plays on literary allusions, or uses past cultural knowledge not readily available to a reader Cartoons are meaningful to those who understand something about the larger discourse within which they are constructed and read This discourse includes a visual language of signs, conventions and rhetorical devices used to convey and interpret meanings Most rhetorical devices can be grouped under the broad categories of caricature and visual analogy

Cultural memory plays an important role in political cartoons Cultural memory refers to the store of background knowledge that one calls upon when interpreting the everyday commonsense world Political cartoons are part of that mundane world as long as readers share four areas of understanding Most obvious is the contextual knowledge of what the cartoonist is commenting upon, whether an immediate social problem or a specific news item Second, there is knowledge of how the cartoon works, including its visual language of signs (images, symbols, captions, and quotes), conventions (expectations about what a sign is meant

to signify), and rhetorical devices (caricature and analogies) used to convey satire, irony, and

ridicule Third, allusions to historical events and personages, or to past cultural texts (e.g., poems, novels, famous quotations, art), are only successful as the reader is able to access the allusionary base from which the analogies are drawn And lastly, there is some understanding

of the broader discourse itself that distinguishes political cartoons from the comics, political or commercial ads, and photojournalism Lack of any aspect of this assumed shared memory might render an image opaque The fact that most readers experience difficulties with cartoons raises questions about the status of this shared memory

1.2.3 Purpose of Political Cartoons

Political cartoons are an easy and funny way to criticize current events without having to resort to tedious activities such as research, reading, or comprehending said current events Political cartoons make criticism of difficult issues as easy as doodling on a napkin - why,

even words are optional! One might say political cartooning makes political commentary

available to the illiterate

Political cartoons are widely used to express opinions about public issues and officials They may be found in the pages of every major newspaper in the world and appeal to all levels of readers Cartoonists possess a special art skill which often incorporates caricatures, symbolism, satire and a well-rounded understanding of the issues about which they are drawing cartoons Often the full meaning of the cartoon is rather subtle and may be missed entirely by casual reader

In short, what has been done in this chapter is a review of CDA by different linguists There have been different ways of doing CDA; each individual method puts emphasis on dissimilar levels of analysis Therefore, the critical discourse analyst should decide on their own focus of analysis in doing their own research The author also would like to stress that this thesis uses discourse approach to obtain the final aim of uncovering English political cartoons under study and, at the same time, revealing the discursive power of language and graphic which realize the social, political opinions of the cartoonist about certain issues

CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY

The second chapter describes the design of the investigation in details including information about data collection methods and data analysis procedures

2.1.Data Collection Methods

My investigation involves 9 English cartoons that subjects are asked to interpret The survey questions are designed in the form of open-ended questions This kind of question aims at testing the informants‟ ability to interpret cartoons individually (without influenced by the suggestions) In order to answer the items, subjects are asked to specify the language, graphic cues or even background knowledge about political events which can help them derive the specific messages in the cartoons

Sample of data collection instruments as follows:

Cartoon:

1 What are the message and the humor in the cartoon?

2 What help you derive the political opinions behind the cartoon?

- Which words or phrases appear to be the most significant? Why?

- Which objects are used as symbols in the cartoon?

- What do you think each symbol mean?

2.2 Data Analysis Procedures

The sample cartoons were collected from popular English magazines, newspapers such as Newsweek, The New Yorker, Times and reliable websites http://www.cartoonstocl.com and http://www.cartoongallery.co.uk

The selection of the cartoons under study was based on the following criteria:

- The cartoons must consist of drawings as well as words to serve the purpose of a linguistics study

- The cartoons look strange, interesting, and funny but not too challenging so that the readers can understand them (especially for non-native readers)

- The cartoons must convey political issues such as power, dominance, prejudge discrimination, and/or racism etc

To execute this case study, it is necessary to find a group of readers who are at advanced English proficiency level because this group are more likely to have motivation and interest in a variety of English sources apart from others They would be willing to spend time and effort to fulfill such an uneasy task of interpreting English cartoons It is decided

to select a group of 10 Vietnamese readers of English; five of them are now working for Vietnam news, Life and Style Division and others are teachers of English at Faculties of Foreign Languages, Hanoi University of Industry Although working at different environment, all of them have been working in English regularly 5 journalists often collect information about life in Vietnam as well as all over the world on every field, then

make them funny in form of short story or cartoons that can help readers gain information but relax after a series of political, social or economical news Sometimes, they are collected from some foreign newspapers or magazines that make them more diversity and help readers update information from many aspects of the life On the other hand, 5 teachers of English often use cartoons as an effective tool of teaching that can help their students gain knowledge about language they are studying, but also help them understand more about its cultural, social or even political issues

Besides, it was also necessary to have a benchmark to measure the degree to which native readers (i.e 10 selected Vietnamese readers of English) arrive at the same understanding as that of native readers Therefore, 5 native readers were contacted and they agreed to take part in the survey These native readers all are mature and fairly experienced in life They are all working in the field of education and business Therefore, their interpretations may be considered valid and reliable

non-I actually do not mean that native speakers set interpretations right A cartoon may be interpreted differently and different people may have different interpretations of cartoons stimulating imagination and thinking However, when creating a cartoon, the cartoonist assumes an ideal viewer who has the relevant linguistic and cultural knowledge Undoubtedly, native readers are more likely to be the ideal one that the cartoon addressed than non-native readers, thus more likely to derive the intended message Through the information given by native readers, the cartoon producing process (or encoding process) can be understood

Five NR were asked to do the same survey questionnaire on English political cartoons as NNR Three of them gave me answers directly and two people sent their emails All the responses were synthesized to become a benchmark for the study, in terms of the most possible interpretations It is remarkable that most of the NR‟s interpretations are quite similar although they might make use of different cues in the cartoons

Vietnamese readers of English were tested to determine the extent to which their interpretation of English cartoons were the same as those of native readers who took the same test 10 copies of questionnaires were handed out, 10 responses were collected directly or indirectly The informants were to give the interpretation for each cartoon without any suggestion in the survey They were also asked to specify the language, graphic features and events which help them derive the messages behind the cartoons The names and addresses of the informants were not presented in the study but were noted down for further interviewing in case there were any details which need to be made clear

The results attained from the two groups were then analyzed A comparison was made between the way Vietnamese readers and native readers exploit the language and graphics

in English cartoons to interpret in order to find out the cause of their misinterpretations Due to the limited sample size, the findings must be carefully interpreted After that major findings are drawn, giving an overview to the non-native readers as well as factors that influence the extent of their understanding

CHAPTER 3 PRESENTATION AND DISCUSION OF

3.1 Data Analysis

It is apparent from the data that finding out hidden messages in English cartoons is no an easy job for non-native readers, especially for political cartoons that often focus on important and sensitive events For most of the cartoons, less than one third of the NNR subjects managed to derive the same messages as NR and the percentage of people leaving them uninterpreted is very high However, overall statistic results do not tell the whole study In order to get a more complete picture of the competence of NNR to interpret cartoons, we must look at the particular items to see which were troublesome and which were not

Besides, the analysis of each individual cartoon hopefully reveals the political issues behind language and graphics-power It is worth repeating here that the concept of power in CDA should be understood in its broad sense Modern power is mostly cognitive, and enacted by persuasion, dissimulation or manipulation, among other strategic ways to change the mind of others in one‟s own interests In this broad senses, cartoonist are certainly power-holders because they are normally knowledgeable, the have privileged access to such a socially valued resources as the media and their ultimate aim is to change the society by shaping public opinions and influencing the policy makers Then the discursive source of power in cartoons are the power of language in use, i.e the cartoonists‟ power of using languages, graphics and social context, etc to constrain content, to favor certain interpretations and “wordings” of

events, while excluding others By means of language, cartoonists have made the problems more striking, more obvious, thus making more people aware of the problem As a result, policy makers are pushed to see to the problems Consequently, language seems to have indirect power over policy makers

In the light of the above theory, the following part will deal with each cartoon individually The orders of the cartoons do not serve any special purposes

Cartoon 1:

The first cartoon is taken from The New Yorker magazine on July 21, 2008 that has stirred up controversy in the U.S for a satirical cover shows Democratic presidential candidate Barrack Obama dressed as a Muslim and his wife as a terrorist Both the Obama campaign and the campaign for the Republican candidate, John McCain, have objected to this cover art

The illustration by artist Barry Blitt depicts Obama wearing traditional Muslim garb and his wife, Michelle-dressed in camouflage, combat boots and an assault rifle strapped over her shoulder-standing in the Oval Office An American flag is burning in the fireplace and over the mantle hangs a portrait of Osama bin Laden In a statement, the magazine said the cover

"combines a number of fantastical images about the Obamas and shows them for the obvious distortions they are."

All being asked foreigner readers say that it is satirizing rumours about Obama-including rumours that he is Muslim and anti-American The idea [is] that somehow Barack Obama is an urban terrorist with a secret agenda that is aligned with al-Qaeda and the second he gets in the White House, he's going to launch some covert plan in order to bring down the United States They may think, as one of them explained to me, it covers a satirical lampoon of the caricature

Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive

It is also so clearly a send-up and all NNR understood that when they saw the image, but what they also understood was that it so perfect encapsulated all the most vitriolic smears about Obama that it could well be used as genuine irony-free propaganda

May be, this cartoon relates closely to a very hot political event in USA, so it is very easy for everyone to understand its context, as a result, most of surveyed readers (both NNR and NR) can exploit the cartoon messages., although there is no word in the cartoon The cartoonist here only uses visual images such as commom objects like clothes, boots and images of USA flat He uses them visually and transfer them into symbols From these visual images in the mind, the readers will relate to basic knowledge, expression and control and then interpret the cartoon in their own point of view In short, by using symbols in this cartoon, Barry Blitt implies his ideology on a sensitive and multi-complex political event that also raises many different opinions from different readers

Cartoon 2:

This cartoon relates to political correctness that leads people to sometimes say or do things which they know to be untrue or unnecessary, or not say or do things which they know to be true or necessary, as they are too afraid or embarrassed to be honest or commonsensical It seems to be easy for NNR to identify the theme of the cartoon However, among 10 NNR, only three people arrived at the same as that of NR

The cartoon, after being given to five NR, can be interpreted as “The stupid of politically correct language” The matter is inferred partly from the juxtaposition of the two concepts”

“fat” and “gravitationally challenged”, suggesting that politicians are in favor of ornate words and political correctness can sometimes be overdone

According to Burack (1994), drawings are the heart of cartoons and what animate thought and emotion Not all drawings are equal: any drawing gives one image of a scene or a person from among the many possible images It is worth noting that the choice is very important, because different images convey different meanings It is, therefore, obvious that analyzing the written text only is not enough to understand cartoons thoroughly This cartoon sets the scene of a sleazy stand-up comic, thus creating satire, irony and ridicule for the cartoon as a whole

It is interesting to know that all the NNR taking part in the survey just based on the written text when interpreting this cartoon, even three NNR who managed to derive the same message

as that of NR Without analysis of visual images, most of NNR did not realize the satiric tone

of cartoon As a result, they mistaken that the cartoonist wanted to convey his/her positive attitude towards politicians and political correctness Then, they finally came to such interpretations as “Politic teaches us to talk about the bad things in a better way”, “Politicians are careful with words”, and “The man changed after political correctness to be more polite” Native readers, on the other hand, not only exploit both the texts and drawings, their reasoning were also backed up by the knowledge of the social and cultural context, i.e., joke telling about the feminist movement

In short, the ridicule found in the cartoon‟ caricature and text is actually the cartoonist‟s endeavour to convey his/her socio-political viewpoint, which he/she hopes would reveal the ridiculous political correctness, then ultimately change the readers‟ opinion Thus, it is obvious that editorial cartoons, especially political cartoons, are biased They intentionally drew with extremes prejudice

Cartoon 3:

This cartoon may be more difficult for readers to find out its hidden message because there are no words in the cartoon and political thoughts and opinions are mainly expressed through complex signs Thus, to derive the implicature, the readers must have background knowledge

of signs analysis beside understanding about the context of the cartoon In linguist Ferdinand

de Saussure‟s study of signs, he emphasized the importance of studying whole systems of signs, rather than simply doing individual analysis He claimed that signs draw meaning and significance from the way they interact with other signs in the system In particular, he

observed that concepts are defined not positively, in terms of their content, but negatively by

contrast with other items in the same system This principle is nicely illustrated in this cartoon What strikes one first about the cartoon is the relative difference in size and fuse length of the two bombs One also notices a difference in the person depicted as the bombs heads The

likeness of George W Bush acts as a means of further distinguishing these two signs; he lights the fuse of a distant bomb while turning his back on the closer one Thus he creates a contrast between them, both in terms of a spatial relationship and a mode of interaction Together these contrasts form part of the core meaning of this cartoon, which is a contrast between nations, a contrast between policies towards nations, and a contradictory matching between nations and policies But how exactly are these images and signs related to nations and policies? It relates

to a structural study of the meaning of complex metaphorical signs known as blending

The most basic intuition for identifying a blend in this cartoon is to notice that while the images of the bombs play a metaphorical role in describing geopolitical relationships between the United States, North Korea, and Iraq, what is seen cannot be a simple projection from a geopolitical space to a metaphorical bombs with fuses space This is because elements of the source space are visible in what is supposed to be the target space! The natural explanation for

the coexistence of elements from both the source and target spaces is that a new blended space

has been created

In the blended space, the Bush and the Bomber nodes have been fused to a single Bush This in itself has significance for the meaning that is emergent in the blended space, in other words, is not found in any input space Since each input space is its own sphere, it is only in the blended space that such a profound and dangerous contradiction between the policies towards Iraq and North Korea, and the immediacy of the danger posed by each can be seen Also, because the Bomber figure is fused with Bush, and bombers are generally thought

Bomber-of as dangerous and even evil, the fusing Bomber-of this figure with Bush is particularly unflattering

Another structural difference between the blended space and the input spaces is that in the blended space there is a loop; the North Korea bomb will injure Bomber-Bush, who lit the fuse However, in the input space, war with North Korea will injure a third party, United States The bombs with fuses input space also implicitly assumes that Victim is different from Bomber President Bush is certainly part of the United States, and as such would be injured if the United States in general were injured, so in an indirect sense the concept of Bush hurting