The power of cartoons: Depicting the political images of Mahinda Rajapakse and Sarath Fonseka as presidential candidates

As a visual medium of mass communication, cartoons appeal to the young and the old, professionals and laymen. Using the semiotic analysis of Manifest and Latent meanings in editorial cartoons supported by Medhurst and DeZousa’s (1981) Taxonomy, the researcher scrutinised 168 editorial cartoons for a total of 33 days from widely read dailies in Sinhalese, Tamil and English before the recent Sri Lankan presidential elections. One key point among the findings is that to decode some of the editorial cartoons that appeared during this period one needs to be familiar with the literary or cultural sources to which they refer. Examples cited in this paper shows that editorial cartoons in election times can provide a cathartic outlet for all voters.