Abstract:
Political cartoons are a powerful communicative weapon. They can distract and express a joke and yet they can also provide social commentaries on key aspects of reality. This thesis carried out a semiological analysis of Dudley’s political cartoons, found in The Namibian newspaper. The analysis of the selected political cartoons was done from the Barthesian semiology perspective with the main objective being to interpret the meaning of the selected political cartoons at the connotative and denotative levels and also to present how the Namibian political landscape is depicted through Dudley’s cartoons. A qualitative research design was used to gain an in-depth understanding and a clear description of the characteristics of the political cartoons used in this study. The study employed a purposive sampling strategy, specifically critical case sampling. Critical case sampling was used to select a small number of important cases to yield the most relevant information with the greatest impact on the development of knowledge. The analysis yields a contextually embedded text or set of images that can be subjected to multiple interpretations and discursive analysis. In brief, the study found that Dudley’s political cartoons depict and portray the Namibian political landscape by divulging the political aspects of the country. Among the aspects portrayed through the studied political cartoons are corruption, unequal distribution of resources and poor service delivery in the public sector. The study concluded that political cartoons serve as an open mirror used by the media, specifically to generate public attention, reorient people and initiate social and political reform in Namibia. This study therefore recommends further exploration of the field of Namibian cartoons to unearth this rich segment and broaden knowledge as well as increase readership awareness of the importance of understanding this rich and interesting branch of the media.
