Cartoons can talk? visual analysis of cartoons on the 2007/2008 post-election violence in Kenya: a visual argumentation approach
Abstract
The growing influence of the visual media in contemporary society is quite alarming; hence,
learning to explicate them is inevitable. This is a paradigm shift from verbal argumentation to
visual argumentation. The aim of this article is to contribute to the understanding of visual analysis
and visual literacy, a part of discourse analysis. Visuals employ a number of rhetorical devices;
however, understanding the effectiveness of these devices is still a challenge. Adopting Visual
Argumentation Theory, the article analyzes argumentation in cartoons on the post-election
violence that rocked Kenya in 2007/2008. From the analyses, it is concluded that visuals can argue
as simply and forcefully as their verbal counterparts. The blending of caricature and portraiture
makes them even more explicit as portraiture denotes the characters so that we can recognize
who they are; caricature ridicules them, analogy attributes actions to them in a satirical or
sarcastic way, and cultural memory is needed to access the reference to the analogies. Visuals are
designed to make the reader think not only about the event or the people being portrayed but
also about the message being communicated. This means visuals have the ability to stretch the
truth beyond caricature or mere amusement.
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