A Semiotic and Multimodal Analysis of Covid-19 Caricatures: the Liberté, The Guardian and The Seattle Times Newspapers
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Date
2021-11
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Publisher
Université Mouloud Mammeri Tizi Ouzou
Abstract
The current research investigates the Semiotic and Multimodal analysis of Covid-19 virus
caricatures. The twelve caricatures are selected from three newspapers including Liberté from
Algeria, The Guardia from Great Britain and The Seattle Times from The United States of
America. The objectives of our study are: to investigate the way the denotative and connotative
meanings are manifested in the caricatures, to examine the way the cartoonists have combined
the semiotic resources for the purpose of conveying meaning and to draw a comparison between
the selected newspapers regarding the caricatures. We have analysed the selected caricatures
by relying on Roland Barthes’s Semiology and more precisely the two notions ‘Denotation and
Connotation’ (1977) and Kress and Van Leeuwen’s theory The Grammar of Visual Design
(2006) based on the qualitative method. The results show that denotation and connotation are
presented in the caricatures by a convergence of the linguistic and visual signs. In addition, the
cartoonists have used different semiotic resources such as colours, language, gestures and
facial expressions. Finally, the results demonstrate that the newspapers in terms of caricatures
share some similarities, the objective of the caricatures is to warn people about the dangerous
Covid-19 virus, all the caricatures are a type of multimodal communication since they are a
combination of different semiotic resources, moreover, Liberté and The Seattle Times share the
caricatures of the same cartoonists ‘Dilem for Liberté and Horsey for The Seattle Times’.
Concerning the differences, Caricature 1 from Liberté shows the absence of Gaze contrary to
the other caricatures. Caricature 3 from Liberté is seen from the oblique angle. The Guardian
share the caricatures of different cartoonists contrary to Liberté and The Seattle Times
newspapers. Caricature 7 can be interpreted differently with and without the linguistic modes.
Description
30cm ; Ill. en coul.
Keywords
Caricatures – Coronavirus – Multimodality – Roland Barthes’s Semiology – The Grammar of Visual Design.
Citation
Didactics of Foreign Languages