Appraising the use of satires in political cartoons in selected Nigeria Print Media

Abstract

This article appraised the use of political cartoons in communicating messages to the public using The Guardian newspaper, The Punch newspapers and The Sun newspapers; particularly, between June 2022 and February, 2023. The paper adopted media intrusion theory  propounded by Dennis Davis in 1990. And framing theory propounded by Gregory Bateson in 1972. Comment: take the deleted details to  the body of the paper. The paper adopted content analysis and in-depth interview with key informants. The units of analysis included:  image of corruption, image of responsibility, image of brutality, image of cruelty, image of terrorism, and image of political failure. The  findings indicate that the impact and significance of cartoons in the information age cannot be over emphasize. That cartoons are very  attractive to mostly children and it influences their perception of the world and value system in their upbringing, and that people read  cartoons for different reasons. Political cartoons aim to make people laugh about current political situations or issues, while at the same time enabling readers to critically think about issues in a new way. Findings also indicate that cartoons have help to expand media scope  and content by adding cartoons varieties from every field or disciplines. It is therefore, recommended among others that, the media  should be granted true or practical freedom to perform it functions the public and more cartoons should be employed in articles, news or  stories that are sensitive or important since it make reading more appealing thereby enhancing retention of messages.