Abstract
This paper compared themes in cartoon news published in three major East Asian newspapers, intending to determine the major political themes in the region. The cartoon texts were excerpted from the newspapers of Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Seven hundred and eight cartoons were nominated for analysis by using a purposive sampling technique. A functional grammar-based content analysis method involving semiotic analysis procedures was adopted to classify the themes contained in the cartoon representations. The main public-interest themes were found to be: democratic governance, economy, corruption, foreign policy, living standard, and security. Results indicated that the majority of Mainland China cartoons (21.9%) focused on foreign policy issues. For Hong Kong (25.5%) and Taiwan (31%), the focus issues are primarily related to democratic governance. This paper contributes to studies, specifically to provide some guidance in formulating public policy and with a testing method to investigate public-interest agenda-setting through newspaper cartoons.
Disciplinary: News, Media & Communication Studies, Public Policy, Social Engineering, Economics & Management, Political Science, International Relation. (C)2021 INT TRANS J ENG MANAG SCI TECH.