Visual representation of ASUU strikes in Nigeria: a semiotic analysis of cartoons in selected Nigerian newspapers

Abstract Until recently, the study of language and meaning of cartoons, the media discourses they generate, and their analysis as a creative means of exploring meaning-making processes as semiotic resources have not received much scholarly attention in Nigeria. Although cartoons that involve the use of satire and humour as visual representations of reality have gained prominence across many media platforms in Nigeria, only a few scholars have examined this from a social semiotics perspective. This has created a gap in the literature, thus creating room for a paradigm shift in the field of social semiotics. This study explores the semiotics of cartoons in selected Nigerian newspapers to examine the meaning-making resources employed in the visual representation of ASUU strikes in Nigeria. The study, therefore, examines how cartoonists manipulate symbols, signs, and other semiotic resources to convey specific meanings through visual and textual representations. The study adopts a qualitative research design; data comprising cartoons sourced from selected Vanguard Newspapers and websites are analyzed using Kress and Van Leeuwen’s visual semiotics and interpreted from the standpoints of Halliday’s Systematic Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach and O’Halloran’s position on metaphorical constructions of meaning. Here, metaphorical manipulation and representation of visual elements in the selected cartoons are interrogated. Findings from the study show the use of semiotic resources in the portrayer of reality in the context of the seemingly intractable ASUU strikes and their consequences on academic activities in Nigeria. This scholarly intervention deserves attention as it significantly contributes to the field of social semiotics through its visual representation in portraying challenges faced by the educational systems in Nigeria vis-à-vis poor government funding.