“A picture is worth ten thousand words”
Fred R.Barnard, of Printers’ Ink, 10 March, 1927
Images are powerful and influential forms of art that act as a medium to communicate messages. In particular, political cartoon images are created to convey or imply important information to large audiences. However, as audiences are required to deduce their own interpretation from images the intended message may not be understood, especially if an individual is not up-to-date with the world of politics.
During the 2016 United States presidential election an abundance of individuals used political cartoons to express their opinions about the candidates running. Specifically, many controversial, thought provoking cartoons emerged in relation to the current President of the United States, Donald Trump.
This particular image could be used to represent the presidential campaign on Trump’s behalf. If one was to view the text at face value it appears as if a man is performing amongst dancers as a confused audience (consisting of a man and an elephant) watch.
However, upon drawing meaning from the image it is evident that the cartoon conveys a deeper message. Essentially the image symbolises Trump’s ‘performance’ during his campaign as he treated the election like a program to parade his beliefs around. The dancers accompanying him represent his followers standing beside him in union as they themselves participate in the show. This is in reference to how his loyal admirers would tweet, post and campaign for him in just as flashy approaches.
The large ‘TRUMP’ sign lined in bright lights further emphasises the notion that Trump treated his campaign as a performance as the flashy bulbs entices an audiences gaze. This symbolises how Trump would issue controversial remarks and claims in order to draw attention to himself.
The cartoon also emphasises how Trump’s campaign was to a degree, an illusion. Like the performance his campaign was choreographed, staged and somewhat fake as he made bold promises to appeal to a mass audience. For example, his famous catch phrase about his intention to ‘make America great again’ causes one to question what constitutes ‘great’?. One person’s interpretation of ‘great’ will be extremely different to others as it is a subjective statement.
Furthermore, the speech bubble “I thought this was the G.O.P debate” conveys the audience, (the public) being confused by Trump’s showy antics. G.O.P means the Grand Old Party which refers to the Republican Party, further reinforced by the elephant which has been a symbol used for this party for decades.
Essentially, if an individual was to view this image without any background knowledge they would draw a different meaning from the text as it’s denotation contrasts extremely to it’s connotations.
References:
Ramsey, M. (2015). Donald Trump campaign political cartoon. [image] Available at: <https://www.gocomics.com/marshallramsey/2015/07/29 > [Accessed 28 Mar. 2019].
Trump, D. (2015). Donald Trump tweet. [image] Available at: <https://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/donald-trump-best-2016-tweets-119057> [Accessed 28 Mar. 2019].
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