NEGLECTING COVID-19 RELATED SOPS IN PUBLIC MEETINGS: A MULTIMODAL ANALYSIS OF COVID-19 RELATED POLITICAL CARTOONS PUBLISHED IN PAKISTANI ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS

Abstract

The study investigates the COVID-19 related language of fear and apprehension in a Pakistani newspaper's political drawings. These cartoons are a powerful way to visualize any current and critical situation as one picture tells the whole story. Cartoonists' drawings are also used to convey a specific meaning behind visual elements. The current research is on Corona virus, which has a worldwide impact on health, and it is evident from the way that newspapers report this epidemic through political cartoons. Data are collected from the English national newspaper 'The Dawn.' The research method is qualitative. This paper adopted a multimodal semiotic analysis approach (Machin, 2007) next to Van Leeuwen's draft repetition (2008) and Fairclough's (2003) graphic and linguistic analysis of Corona virus related political cartoons. Images represent and link to convey a specific meaning in terms of social and historical contexts. Research shows that these political images spread fear and mental illness to people. However, they also mocked and criticized the official authorities for ignoring the COVID-19 SOPs at public meetings and expressed fear of the spread of cases again in the second wave, as they did not make wise decisions while controlling this epidemic.