Cartoon Application in Communication and Social Mobilization in Nigeria’s Bring Back Our Girls: The Way Forward (Published)
There is no doubt that art is an effective way to communicate messages. Pictures and cartoons cover for a shortfall of issues which cannot be wholly captured in words. The visual nature of cartoons gives it the ability to evoke emotions and cause people to act and react in a certain manner. The concern of this work is to investigate the potency of the cartoons used in the Bring Back Our Girls campaign, between May 2014 and January 2015. The study adopts the pragmatic theory as a framework. Using content analysis the study collated and analysed cartoons published on local and international websites on BBOG campaign, to gain accurate insight, 126 respondents from Calabar Municipality graded all 35 cartoons on their social mobilization content. Analysis of the data revealed active cartoon publications on the campaign, also a larger percent of the respondents indicated that the cartoons were potent for social mobilization. The paper recommends that in regard to the effectiveness of cartoons in communication, more NGOs, Governments and the active public should employ cartoons as a means of commenting on the challenges bedevilling the society
Keywords: Cartoons, communication, pragmatic theory, social mobilization
Cartoon Application in Communication and Social Mobilization in Nigeria’s Bring Back Our Girls: The way Forward (Published)
There is no doubt that art is an effective way to communicate messages. Pictures and cartoons cover for a shortfall of issues which cannot be wholly captured in words. The visual nature of cartoons gives it the ability to evoke emotions and cause people to act and react in a certain manner. The concern of this work is to investigate the potency of the cartoons used in the Bring Back Our Girls campaign, between May 2014 and January 2015. The study adopts the pragmatic theory as a framework. Using content analysis the study collated and analysed cartoons published on local and international websites on BBOG campaign, to gain accurate insight, 126 respondents from Calabar Municipality graded all 35 cartoons on their social mobilization content. Analysis of the data revealed active cartoon publications on the campaign, also a larger percent of the respondents indicated that the cartoons were potent for social mobilization. The paper recommends that in regard to the effectiveness of cartoons in communication, more NGOs, Governments and the active public should employ cartoons as a means of commenting on the challenges bedevilling the society.
Keywords: Cartoons, communication, pragmatic theory, social mobilization