Abstract:
A political cartoonist can express in one drawing an idea which may require a thousand
words. In this study, while establishing this potential of the cartoonist, the researcher focuses
on how political ideology is represented through cartoons. The sample for the study consists
of cartoons which were published during the period starting from the date on which the
nominations were given for the 2015 general election (i.e 14-07-2015) to the day of the
election (i.c 17-08-2015). The content analysis was done using the cartoons which appeared
on the newspapers with the largest number of sales in Sri Lanka. These newspapers were
selected based on the report of the Sri Lanka press council. The content of a political cartoon
can be categorized into six parts i.e symbol, labels, caption, exaggeration, common method
and dialogue. When analyzing the political cartoons according to these categories, it becomes
apparent that the political cartoons represent the political ideology espoused by the particular
newspaper. This was clearly identified according to the time frame of the study and by the
day of the election.
