Ideological Polarization Of Meaning-Making Processes In Pakistani Political Cartoons: A Semiotic Analysis

Abstract

The meaning-making processes are involved in the development of ideologies associated with a particular event, which leads to the psychological schema of the contextualized event, as well as communicative talk. The present research has analyzed that these meaning-making processes can be polarized by the one who generates the information and by the one who further disperses the information to the viewers. The current study has particularly analyzed the polarization designed by the cartoonist in the domain of political discourse. The cartoonist violates the actual piece of information by utilizing different linguistic tools and discursive strategies. The current study has analyzed four political cartoons under the theoretical framework of Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach, which concludes that ideologically polarized political discourse has become a linguistic tool for controlling the mental modes and ideologies associated with a political party, its leaders, and their narratives. This study has found that the cartoonist has utilized fifteen types of socio-cognitive discursive strategies to ideologically polarize the meaning-making processes and control the cognitive abilities of the audience.

Keywords: Polarization; Meaning Making Processes; Political Cartoons; Semiotic Analysis; Discursive strategies