SATIRICAL COMMUNICATION: A STUDY OF CARTOONS IN SOME SELECTED NIGERIAN NEWSPAPERS

Abstract

This study examined the use of cartoons in three chosen Nigerian newspapers. The rationale was to determine the types of cartoons, placement of cartoons, dominant themes of cartoons and also to examine the tone used to report cartoons in the chosen newspapers. Content analysis research method was utilised to obtain data. Three national dailies were randomly chosen. They were: The Punch Newspapers, ThisDay Newspapers and The Guardian Newspapers. Of 387 editorial items analysed, 501 cartoon items were extracted and studied. The study’s time frame was from the 1st of January to 30th of June 2022 out of which Monday to Friday were chosen in a week. Out of cartoons placed in the three newspapers, 264 cartoons were published by the Punch newspaper, 108 cartoons were published by the ThisDay newspaper and 129 cartoons were published by the Guardian newspaper. The study also found out that in terms of the types of cartoons published, findings revealed that 91 were political cartoons, 155 were comic strips, 255 were gag cartoons. Also, with regards to the placement of cartoons, 330 cartoons were placed in the editorial page, 132 were placed in the back page, 39 cartoons were placed inside the page. In terms of the dominant themes of cartoons, 301 cartoons were on political issues, 12 were on religious issues, 149 cartoons were on economic issues, 16 cartoons were on ethnicity issues while 23 cartoons had issues on hate. The data also revealed that political issues were the most published by the newspapers. Therefore, the study recommends that apart from placing the cartoons at the editorial page, inside page & back page, newspaper houses should also put cartoons at the front page of their newspapers so that it will attract the attention of the readers and that the study of editorial cartoons should be incorporated into the curricula of schools that teach Journalism/Mass Communication (universities and polytechnics inclusive).