2015 General Election and Political Cartoons

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.