2012 american presidential debates through american political cartoons

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER 2012 AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES THROUGH AMERICAN POLITICAL CARTOONS SUPERVISOR: MS NGUYỄN LÊ HƯỜNG, MA STUDENT: NGÔ HỒNG QUÂN YEAR OF ENROLMENT: QH2009 HA NOI, MAY 2013 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP TRANH LUẬN BẦU CỬ TỔNG THỐNG MỸ NĂM 2012 QUA TRANH BIẾM HỌA CHÍNH TRỊ Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Thạc sĩ Nguyễn Lê Hường Sinh viên: Ngơ Hồng Qn Khố: QH2009 HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2013 i ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that I: Ngô Hồng Quân, QH2009.F.1.E1, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Bachelor‟s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature (Ngô Hồng Quân) Date: April 25, 2013 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Special thanks go to all the people without whose encouragement, cooperation, and contribution, it is hard for this study to be fulfilled First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Nguyễn Lê Hường, for her advice, patience, wisdom, and great encouragement, which were the decisive factors in the completion of the study Moreover, I would like to thank Mr Trần Quốc Trung, Ms Phạm Ngọc Trang, Ms Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Thảo, and many other friends of mine in class QH2009.F.1.E1, who supported me during the period of conducting the research In addition, I also want to express my love to my family for their supporting me wholeheartedly during my undergraduate study Last but not least, I would honestly appreciate my readers for their interests and criticism on the study i ABSTRACT The 2012 American presidential debates have been one of the events attracting great attention from people both inside the United States and outside its borders Besides the large number of related editorials that report and share critical comments and judgments of well-known statesmen and scholars, political cartoons are considered the most popular channel to express public opinions on the debates in a rhetorical way thanks to striking visuals together with stylistic elements within a single frame Though interpreting hidden messages conveyed by cartoons is a challenging work, it can help readers understand more deeply about the American political culture, especially how politicians in the U.S are criticized through images together with just a few words The study has been an attempt to find out how political cartoons viewed the 2012 American presidential through the use of rhetorical devices and the issues reflected A qualitative analysis was employed as the method to analyze 25 cartoons about debates The analyses examined the political cartoons based on two main points: public attitudes towards the candidates as well as debates and the criticisms of the proposed policies by the President and the former Governor, which reflected that the American people seemed to favor Obama over Romney under the eyes of cartoonists Moreover, both dosmestic and foreign policies of the two candidates were giving great cause for Americans‟ concern ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACCEPTANCE PAGE ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i ABSTRACT ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale and statements of the research problem 1.2 Aims of the study and research questions 1.3 Significance of study 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Methodology 1.6 Struture of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Political cartoons and their purposes 2.2 Understanding visual literacy, visual rhetoric and visual metaphor 10 2.2.1 Visual literacy and Visual rhetoric 10 2.2.2 Visual metaphor 13 2.3 Understanding of the Medhurst and DeSousa Taxonomy 16 2.4 Background knowledge about the 2012 American presidential election 18 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 21 3.1 Data collection method 21 iii 3.2 Data analysis method 21 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 22 4.1 Public attitudes towards the candidates and the debates 22 4.1.1 Public attitudes towards the candidates 22 4.1.2 Public attitudes towards the debates 27 4.2 Criticism of the proposed policies by the candidates 28 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS 33 5.1 Major findings 33 5.2 Limitations of the research 34 5.3 Suggestions for further study 35 LIST OF REFERENCES 36 APPENDICES 40 APPENDIX 1: 40 TRANSCRIPTS OF 2012 AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES 40 APPENDIX 2: POLITICAL CARTOONS REFERENCES 41 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS GAO Government Accountability Office IVLA International Visual Literacy Association UK U.S / USA The United Kingdom The United States of America v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This initial chapter justified the reasons for this study to be carried out Research questions, the significance of the research, scope of study and thesis structure would be presented 1.1 Rationale and statements of the research problem For more than 200 years since the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the United States of America has become the most powerful country in the world among other superpowers such as the UK, France, China, Japan, Germany (Rogers & Simón, 2011) and been exerting its massive influence all over the world through not only political, economic and military power but also education and culture Therefore, in the reverse direction, this country is at the center of the world‟s attention, especially its politics that includes the American presidential election This quadrennial event is considered unique as while choosing the country‟s new leader, the American people concurrently elect someone who will have a significant impact on the world‟s economic, political and social situations Perhaps, no other country's leadership change is followed so closely as that of the American Unlike the previous presidential election which has been considered as the most remarkable and impressive event in the history of the U.S regarding the turning point when the bi-racial African-American, Barack Obama, became the 44th president of the United States, the 2012 campaign of the two candidates paid close attention to a large number of issues that the States have been coping with, consisting of the still relatively high unemployment rate (at 7.9% in October 2012, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics), public debt (over 16,000 billion as of September 30th, 2012 reported by the U.S GAO), federal deficit, foreign policy regarding Arab Spring uprisings and the Iranian nuclear threat, the rise of China, and so on Furthermore, according to a short summary with graphs, charts and numbers posted on The Washington Post on December 7th last year, it has become the costliest election on record in American history as more than billion US dollars was spent on the presidential election campaign Moreover, whilst several people have yet made up their minds as to whom they will vote for, the presidential and vice presidential debates might help them decide whether Barack Obama and Joe Biden of the Democratic Party or Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan of the Republican Party would be selected In fact, it is the only time American people, especially undecided voters, have a chance to evaluate two Democratic nominees and two Republicans side by side to match them up against each other Therefore, what happened in debates, especially the performance of each candidate, has been kept under observation of both the U.S itself and other countries in the world since they want to know whether the Americans are favorable or unfavorable towards whom as well as what and how much will be accomplished in the next four years This inspired the researcher to carry out a study about this interesting topic One among the most suitable ways to have a good answer to this interrogation is through media eyes since the presidential debates themselves traditionally attract heavy press coverage, especially political cartoons Political cartoons, which are often found on the editorial page of almost every American printed newspapers or magazines, have always been an integral part of American political life since the very first published cartoon named Join or Die, a strong message to the American colonies to unite, was drawn by Benjamin Franklin in 1754 (Burns, 2006, cited in Matthews, 2011) Thanks to the rocket development of the information technology and especially the advent of the Internet, besides printed editions, this type of cartoons can easily be found on many blogs, websites, or online newspapers and magazines Flourishing and penetrative as it is, political cartoons become an organic part of daily life through people‟s enormous everyday exposure to them Without doubt, as a means of political communication and socialization, these political cartoons have been exercising an overwhelming impact on various aspects of American society They not only “visually symbolize, satirize or caricature some topic, action or person” (Feldman, 2005, p.152) but also are preferably exploited to point out defections within the political system or force a vote of censure Williams, V.S (1998) Creating Effective Visual Metaphors Retrieved November 16, 2012 from www.personal.psu.edu/staff/v/q/vqw/Portfolio/VislMeta.pdf 39 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: TRANSCRIPTS OF 2012 AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES Debate (October 3, 2012) Retrieved on March 20, 2013 from http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/03/politics/debate-transcript/index.html Debate (October 16, 2012) Retrieved on March 20, 2013 from http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/10/16/171713/complete-transcript-of-thepresidential.html Debate (October 22, 2012) Retrieved on March 20, 2013 from http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/22/transcript-third-presidentialdebate/ 40 APPENDIX 2: POLITICAL CARTOONS REFERENCES Cartoon Cả Cartoon 41 Cartoon Cartoon 42 Cartoon Cartoon 43 Cartoon Cartoon 44 Cartoon Cartoon 10 45 Cartoon 11 Cartoon 12 46 Cartoon 13 Cartoon 14 47 Cartoon 15 Cartoon 16 48 Cartoon 17 Cartoon 18 49 Cartoon 19 Cartoon 20 50 Cartoon 21 Cartoon 22 51 Cartoon 23 Cartoon 24 52 Cartoon 25 53 ... named ? ?2012 American Presidential Debates through American Political Cartoons? ?? 1.2 Aims of the study and research questions Broadly speaking, the study is aimed at political cartoons about 2012 American. .. the 2012 American presidential debates represented through the political cartoons in terms of the rhetorical devices exploited?  How were the 2012 American presidential debates represented through. .. question of how the 2012 American presidential debates were represented through the political cartoons in terms of political content elaborated, the political content of 25 selected cartoons falls