Metaphorical Meaning of Texts Integrated in the Multimodal Political Cartoons of Corruption in The Daily Nation Newspaper

The language of cartoons is not as direct as the language of news reporting in that it is characterized by satirical and metaphorical pictures; and codified and connotative wordings which makes it socially appropriate and relevant to inform, educate and entertain the general public. Cartoons are used to satirize and lampoon socio-political abuses like corruption. In Kenya, corruption poses one of the greatest challenges facing the Kenyan government and reports on corruption scandals in the media are the order of the day. The present research studied the unique nature of the language of cartoons with focus on portrayal of corruption. The specific objective was to establish the metaphorical meaning of texts integrated in the multimodal political cartoons of corruption in The Daily Nation Newspaper. The research was guided by the tenets of the pictorial metaphor model founded by Charles Forceville (2006) within the conceptual metaphor theory. The study was limited to multimodal political cartoons depicting corruption in The Daily Nation Newspaper in 2018 and 2019, a period characterized by mega corruption scandals in Kenya. The study adopted the analytical research design. The study population comprised 14 multimodal political cartoons with metaphoric expressions in The Daily Nation Newspaper in 2018 and 2019. Random purposive sampling technique was used to select the required cartoons and the sample size was dictated by saturation sampling. A total of 14 metaphorical expressions were purposively sampled from the 14 political cartoons. The data was then coded and analyzed qualitatively into themes of the respective conceptual metaphors. The findings were that the conceptual metaphors of corruption in The Daily Nation Newspaper are investigating corruption is turning a stone to reveal what is underneath, coruption is dirty money, corruption is stench, bribery is purchase, corruption is war, corruption is robbery, strategising is warming up, corruption is a movie, ......