Persuasion/Dissuasion on National Interest Agenda: A Semiotic Analysis of Pakistani Newspaper Cartoons

The focus of this research was depiction of and persuasion on national interest agenda through semiotics of Pakistani newspapers. It targeted a broad comparison among the semiotics as depicted in two Pakistani English newspapers i.e., Dawn and The Nation. To achieve the objectives, the study was divided into two parts: In part 1 the semiotics were analyzed and in part 2 the written part of political cartoons was analyzed. The study devised an integrated framework of analysis by blending Barthes (1957) theory of semiotics and Fairclough’s (1995) ‘three dimensional’ CDA model for interpretation and explanation of semiotics’ discourse. The study revealed the frequent use of multiple persuasion modes in political cartoons of both the newspapers’ semiotics and discourse. While comparing the two newspapers’ semiotics and discourse, the study also found that daily ‘Dawn’ semiotics played very negligible role in persuasion on national interest agenda of establishing military courts. However, ‘The Nation’ semiotics contributed positively towards national interest agenda-setting. The study recommended careful comparison between various newspapers by readership in order to know the ideological bent of newspapers while representing the facts and opinions.


Introduction
Since ancient times, political cartoons have proven to be functioning as powerful cultural tools while encompassing viewers of all background. They provide brief, humorous, clever snaps of all types of issues like political, legal, economic and social. According to Willett and Singer (1993), the first recorded political cartoon appeared in Egypt around 1360 BC. Some painter satirized Ikhnaton, the unpopular father-in-law of Tutankhamen. It gave way to numerous satirical attacks on ancient Egyptian leaders that ranged from Cleopatra to low-level government officials (Moyle, 2004). The political cartoon can be defined as a satirical comment (using humor and caricature) about a political person, institution or event reflecting the cartoonist's own values and opinions on that issue. It is, hence, a subjective observation on a political matter (Mateus, 2016). Peculiar background knowledge and analytical skills are needed to comprehend message of cartoons (Lent, 2000). It is pertinent that newspaper cartoons constitute a type of media text who's verbal and graphic features have made them an interesting research field across different academic areas. The cartoons have been selected as object of this study because they provide a format within political communication in which complex messages can be expressed through a single image, wherein, a general extensive clarification is needed when the message is written in words. The political cartoons are characterized by humor, lack of written information and setting of political agenda (Bormann, Koester, & Bennett, 1978). Next to this, a political cartoon is a format that simplifies the complex political situation and thus helps people to understand current events (Hoffman & Howard, 2007). Newspaper cartoons are a sketch or comic strip, holding a political or social message that generally narrates to present happenings, typically found on the journalistic side of the newsprint. The political cartoons express opinions, create valuable thoughts and provide precise knowledge on current socio-political issues. Through direct way of communication, cartoons clearly address an issue for general public. Cartoons provide a design within political communication in which intricate messages can be articulated through a single image, whereas usually, an extensive explanation is needed when the message is written in words. Whereas a classic newspaper

Conceptual Definitions
For the purpose of easy comprehension of the subject matter by the readers, it is deemed necessary to explain certain terminologies and concepts being used in this study.

Cartoon, Political Cartoon and Caricature
According to Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, cartoon means 'an amusing drawing in a newspaper or magazine, especially one about politics or events in the news.' A cartoon is a type of drawing, normally in a non-realistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved gradually, but the current usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images intended for satire, caricature, or humor. The concept originated in middle ages, and cartoon was defined as 'a preliminary drawing for a piece of art, such as a painting, fresco, tapestry, or any other painting medium'. In the 19th century, beginning in Punch magazine in 1843, cartoon came to refer-ironically at first-to comical pictures in periodicals and newspapers. In the early 20th century, it started to denote animated films which looked like printed cartoons. A political cartoon, a type of editorial cartoon, is a graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. Political cartoons typically combine artistic skill, hyperbole and satire in order to question authority and draw attention to corruption, political violence and other social evils.

Persuasion and Persuasion Modes in Political Cartoons
Rhetoric, the ability or art of persuasion was an effective tool during political debates of classical Greece. The Greek philosopher Aristotle was a blatant supporter of the art of persuasion as according to him the justice and truth could only prevail if the speaker could put across his view point to win a case. He suggested three modes of persuasion. Ethos (credibility); It means character of the speaker should convince the audience either through previous reputation or through tone, style and views expressed in message. Logos (reason); It refers to the clarity of the message's claim, its logic, and the effectiveness of its supporting evidence. The audience should be able to follow a clear progression of concepts backed up with reasonable and appropriate details. Pathos (emotion); It is often associated with emotions, is more broadly an appeal that draws upon the audience's emotions, sympathies, interests, and/or imagination. There are certain widely agreed upon modes used by the cartoonists for persuasion of readership. Symbolism; Using simple objects to represent ideas, concepts or people is called symbolism in political cartoons, Exaggeration; Overdoing the physical characteristics of a person or thing in order to make a point means exaggeration, Labeling; Labeling objects or people to make it clear what they stand for is termed as labeling and analogy; Comparing two unlike things or comparing complex issues to more simple and common matters is termed as analogy. Irony; shows the difference between appearance and reality or expectations. Satire is a literary device used to ridicule any person, thought or situation. Historically, according to Townsend et al. (2008), political satire roots back to political cartoons itself. In 18th century, English print media would often criticize British rule.

Semiotics
The study of signs and symbol is called semiotics. According to Pierce (1902), sign can be symbolic, linguistic, and artificial or any other thing. He divides signs into three categories; Icon, index and symbols. Saussure (1959) gives the concept of signs, signifier and signified. According to him, the language and signs are arbitrary in nature. Barthes (1957) propounds the concept of levels of signification of signs. His three levels are denotative, connotative and mythical.

Written and Visual Discourse
Morgan (2010) says that linguistic and paralinguistic both the parts constitute discourse. The word 'discourse' literally means argument. According to Hovav and Levin (2001), expository discourse is very commonly used type of discourse in academic, legal and press writings. Originally, discourse was associated with written and spoken use of language but with the advancement of natural science in 18th century, scientific knowledge was depicted more through visual images than written codes. Jenks (1995) and Rorty (1979) say that comprehension of the discourse consumers increases through visual representation more than spoken or written discourse. The discourse of print media also relies heavily on visual or semiotic representations of common and hardcore issues. Albers (2007) says that visual image if analyzed while following the techniques of written discourse analysis can be called as visual discourse analysis (VDA).

National Interest Agenda
An underlying, often ideological plan or program, that is, in collective benefit of the nation or country during certain situation and specific time frame is termed as national interest agenda.

National Action Plan
In early 2015, Pakistani Government drafted a unified plan to fight against the menace of terrorism. This anti-terrorism campaign gained impetus after the terrorist attack on APS Peshawar. The plan included establishment of military courts through constitutional amendments in Pakistan Army Act.

Works Already Done
Mwetulundila, Rauna and Kangira (2012) explored the use of rhetoric and humor in Dudley's political cartoonsextracted from Namibian newspapers. The descriptive study used qualitative design for semiotic and content analysis of cartoons for rhetoric and humor. Data collection was done by using criteria sampling. The analysis was carried out while relying on Aristotle's rhetorical proofs of persuasion: ethos, pathos and logos along with humor theories of superiority and incongruity. The study revealed that ethos was used for high profile social figures, pathos was used to stir up the emotions of readers so as to gain support for the argument and logos was employed to indicate that the cartoons were based on truth. Idid and Chang (2012) examined media and public agenda of two major ethnic groups during the 2008 General Elections by employing content analysis and survey tools. The study found that media agenda had no significant rank-order correlation with the public agenda or the important issues raised by Malay, Chinese, and Indian respondents nationwide. The study established that Chinese media agenda had a significant rank-order correlation with the Chinese public agenda, proposing that the newspapers affected among the Chinese readers on what to think about. Sani et al. (2012) aimed at demonstrating how political cartoons were used as a vehicle of setting social agenda in Nigerian newspapers to reorient and form the public opinion through frequent depictions. Content analysis was used to categorize the themes contained in the cartoons' depictions. Qualitative approach was used to analyze the cartoons through semiotic analysis. The analysis mainly focused the interpretation of the sign system, centered on the connotation and denotation features, in the cartoons. It was found that 80% of semiotics focused on substantive themes for setting socio political agenda in Nigeria. Shaikh et al. (2013) was carried out on Pakistani newspaper cartoons while using quanto-qualitative approach for semiotic analysis. The use of political cartoons as communicative tools was studied during election campaign 2013. The persuasion measures adopted by cartoonists for voters were also studied. The research found that all the persuasive techniques such as symbolism, irony, exaggeration, labeling and analogy were frequently employed by Pakistani print media in editorial cartoons. Sani and Yar'aduwa (2014) investigated construction of satire through visual metaphor in Nigerian newspapers' editorial cartoons for persuading and influencing public opinion. The study used a cognitive perspective of metaphor and semiotic approach for analyzing the cartoons' visual presentations of real-world happenings. The study suggested that visual metaphor was an innovative and thought-provoking rhetoric that strongly appealed to the minds of readers more tersely than its verbal metaphor. The research findings proposed that visual metaphor could be utilized conceptually to create satire as a way of disapproving social, political and economic corruptions to improve social values.
Ashfaq and Adnan (2014) analyzed political cartoons published in mainstream English language newspapers of Pakistan. It aimed at understanding how political cartoons stayed powerful in representing the images of the United States (US). The Barthes's model of semiotic analysis was utilized in analyzing the sample of political cartoons to determine the stance of political cartoonists in the love-hate syndrome of Pak-US relations. It was established that political cartoonists reinforced pre-existing paradigms of anti-Americanism.
Hussain and Li (2016) investigated the use of Pakistani newspaper cartoons as a tool for setting national interest agenda. The study carried out content analysis for classification of themes of cartoons. The qualitative approach was adopted for semiotic analysis of cartoons. The study findings revealed that about 70% of cartoon themes focused on substantive issues. Rehman (2018), attempted to discover the image of Islam as depicted by the American media in the scenario of 9/11 attack. The study aimed to analyze selected American media cartoons related with Islam and to disclose what kind of ideologies they promoted about Islam and its followers. For decoding the cartoons, semiotic model of Roland Barthes was used in semiotic analysis for identification of denotation and connotation of Islam phobic ijel.ccsenet.org International Journal of English Linguistics Vol. 10, No. 3;2020 signs. It was revealed that American media had depicted Islam in an undesirable way, while making a connotative link between Muslims and terrorist actions. A few recommendations concerning the change of established myth about Islam were also made by the researcher.
El-Falaky (2019) evaluated some editorial cartoons selected from Al-Ahram, an Egyptian newspaper, during 2011 and the 2013 Public Revolutions. The study found how visual images were deliberately created to communicate and propagate ideologies, principles and identities in official print media of Egypt. The study relied upon Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) framework of Visual Grammar. The study revealed the political, social, and cultural milieu in Egypt at the time of unrest. The paper demonstrated that through multimodal texts, official newspaper inscribed its political and ideological stances to its audience.

Methodology
This study is descriptive in nature and qualitative in approach and having a comparative perspective. According to Blaikie (2010), reality is interpreted by the meanings; the people produce and reproduce as routine part of their daily interactions. Reality can, therefore, be accessed according to Myers (2009) only through social constructions such as language and shared meanings. Interpretivistism-based study targets, through the observation and interpretation of such social constructions, to appreciate a phenomenon as it is experienced and made meaningful by human beings (Collins, 2010). To comprehend how newspapers' political cartoons represented and emphasized the APS Peshawar-Pakistan, terrorism attack, national action plan, constitutional amendments and establishment of military courts and how interpretations of such semiotics may contribute to spreading or reinforcing particular agenda, the researchers used the qualitative research approach for semiotics and critical discourse analyses (CDA).

Data Collection
The present research decodes the linguistic and semiotics discourses of political cartoons, published in the Pakistani English-language newspapers (Dawn, The Nation). The purpose is to reveal the hidden ideologies and show how the communicators select and choose the semiotic and verbal resources that disseminate their desired meanings. These newspapers were selected as a sample for the reasons of; wide circulation, maximum educated readership, being old and well-reputed daily newspapers and for publishing political cartoons on daily basis.

Sampling
The data for the present study were selected from the above-mentioned newspapers appearing during 17 December 2014 to 16 March 2015 (three months) by using criteria sampling technique. It is pertinent to mention that national action plan (NAP) was at its peak when Pakistan Army-related cartoons were extracted prior to and after constitutional amendments and establishment of military courts-for speedy trial of terrorists. The role of print media, in this context, was highly important and particularly civil-military relations and their influence on internal security of Pakistan. The selection of the cartoons was driven by the fact that such depictions are highly contextualized.

Framework of Analysis
An integrated framework of analysis was devised by selecting Barthes' (1957) model of semiotics, with its levels of significations and combining it with Fairclough's (1995) three-dimensional model of critical discourse analysis (CDA). Both the models are precisely described in subsequent sub paragraphs.

Barthes' Model of Semiotics
He gave a semiotics theory having three levels of signification. According to Barthes semiotic theory, denotative level or primary level is associated with the dictionary, actual, real, literal or denotative meaning of a given word/sign. Connotative level is typically considered as secondary meaning, hence, considered as second level of signification. These are the meanings which vary from speaker/writer to speaker/writer and listener/reader to listener/reader. Mythological level is associated with the culturally flexible concepts such as hospitality, modesty and bravery. At this level, the culturally recognized variables are critiqued and applied within a specific text or genre within the particular culture or context.

Fairclough's (1995) Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) Model
According to him, every communicative event comprises three dimensions:

Limita
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The collec of CDA an In the nex framework

Data An
Fairclough mythologi cultural an framework model is employed in bottom up pattern while integrating Barthes' model of Semiotics analysis (1957) parallel to text analysis part, of Fairclough's (1995) model. The data analysis moves from broader to narrow perspective. Accordingly, socio cultural context is explained first followed by discursive practice and micro analysis of text and semiotics is done at the end.

Socio Cultural Practice (Explanation)
When analyzing the sociocultural practice of a communicative event, the researcher can discover diverse layers such as the immediate situational context, the context of institutional practices the event is enclosed in, or the wider frame of society and culture (Fairclough, 1995). The analysis of sociocultural practice in this study is done by analyzing the relationships; Pakistanis have with terrorism, military, constitution and judiciary.
On the morning of 16 December 1914, a small group of terrorists armed with guns and suicidal jacket entered APS Peshawar in Pakistan and killed over 140 students and teachers and left many as injured. After entering into the war against terrorism since 2001, Pakistan has faced many gun attacks, bomb explosions and suicidal attacks in different towns and cities. Peshawar city has been the main victim of terrorism as it is located closer to Afghanistan where international coalition is fighting against terrorists since two decades. The main targets of terrorists have been government departments, police, military establishments, high profile persons and education institutions. The APS attack was the first heinous and brutal act of its own nature. The attackers were later killed by Pakistan army commandos and identified as Afghanistan based. They had links with Taliban and Al-Qaida network. There has been an era when Pakistan as a State had accepted Taliban

Discursive Practice (Interpretation)
The processes involved in the production of semiotics discourses by different newspapers in the wake of 16 December 2014 terrorist attack on APS Peshawar are described as discursive practice. The English newspapers selected for analysis are 'The Nation' and 'Dawn'. It has been observed during the study that the same events have been represented in semiotics and discourses differently by the two newspapers. The coverage of 'The Nation' seems pro establishment and in favour of military establishment whereas 'Dawn' semiotics is critical and apprehensive about military's role in National Action Plan (NAP). The persuasion techniques used by the two newspapers on national interest agenda have diverging styles and tones. Due to basic dissimilarity in publication, in viewpoint, style and policy, the semiotics, published by the two newspapers essentially approach the same agenda contrarily. Meanwhile, these differences are not usually obvious when observing word choices and semantics. It has been detected that, despite the expected neutral stance of editors and cartoonists, dictated by professional values such as integrity and objectivity, concealed meanings and philosophies necessarily transpire in the language used to express views on national interest agenda and the persuasion styles of newspaper cartoonists differs from each other's.

Text and Semiotics (Description)
Here, the third component or layer of analysis i.e., semiotics and text of editorial cartoons are analyzed. The samples selected from two different English newspapers are described one by one.

Dawn (English, Daily) Cartoons
The semiotics has been collected from two different Pakistani English newspapers. Therefore, for the purpose of simplicity of analysis the two newspapers' visual and linguistic contents are being investigated separately. Likewise, CDA of written contents of semiotics are carried out at the end of every figure's analysis. Five cartoons selected from daily 'Dawn' are being analyzed one by one.        Figure 5 army remained ad moved its Zia. Even after olicy. There h nt but also su ces and not th ception. The c ossible if Pakis tion' is a Paki y of Pakistan a ns.
In ance of the nat parties and gro at forceful exit efugees' exit fr has been used sis of Figure 5 Denotation Two chairs and a  Afghanistan fro into Afghanis wal of USSR me when Paki n this historica nt that shape it ying to create elite agrees or office stateme ment of irony Figure 6 urnal of English 77 fghan refugees links with Af ationals is a un has been exag nist.   f Figure 7 ning face gestu n anti-State ac eedy justice is r has been repr ourts during a in the caricatu being establis ard' has been a cause his train hrough the use upported by th ence, the 'sym nd justification toonist in a cov emiotic Analy    In Pakistani cultural context it has been depicted that political parties agreed to constitutional amendment under pressure of Pakistan Army 10) CDA of Figure 11 At iconic level, the opened hands stand for queries, questions and surprise. The Prime Minister has been represented as full of confusion over agreement of opposition political parties' consensus on establishing military courts. The clause 'In APC I had to agree he was sitting there' has been used as label. All parties' conference (APC) was summoned for deciding about establishing military courts on which all political parties agreed. So, the ruling party and Prime Minster could not offer any resistance to the military command over constitutional amendments and establishment of military courts. The situation left the government with shock and surprise and it perhaps succumbed to the pressure of military command over constitutional amendments and establishment of military courts. Maulana symbolizes pro-Taliban faction of Pakistani society. Here, the cartoon symbolizes moral dominance and physical dominance of armed forces over militant organizations or the underground mutual association of the two.

Findings and Discussion
This paper has encompassed the main features of visual discourse by selecting political cartoons as sample for the study by applying integrated framework of analysis through combination of Fairclough's (1995) three-dimensional model of CDA and Roland Barthes (1957) semiotic theory of levels of signification i.e., denotation, connotation and myth. Some explicit meanings of the text and visual discourse (cartoons) have been derived by the researchers while applying the model of CDA and semiotic theory i.e., socio-cultural practice, discourse practice, text description, denotation, connotation and myth. By analyzing text and visual discourse in the form of cartoons, the researchers have endeavored to unveil the hidden motive of the cartoonists towards the persuasion on national interest agenda of establishment of military courts for speedy trial of terrorists. The role of military, in national security of Pakistan, forms the main concept of this research. The researchers approached the study through three research questions. The data only related to semiotics about establishment of military courts from two newspapers namely 'The Nation' and 'Dawn' were collected during 17 December 2014 to 16 March 2015 (three months). For the purpose of exploration of semiotics and related text in Pakistani English newspapers, only two newspapers were selected in the study while local languages newspapers, Urdu and remaining English newspapers could not be assimilated due to limited scope of the paper. In the process of deconstruction of hidden themes in newspapers' semiotics and discourse, the researchers took a stand point and therefore do not claim complete objectivity. Researcher's quality is much prominently linked to the results of qualitative study (Morse & Richards, 2002). The first research question was about the way daily 'DAWN' played its role in persuasion on national interest agenda-setting through its semiotics. The study revealed that the persuasion techniques such as irony, satire and exaggeration were apprehensively and a bit pejoratively used by the cartoonists in representing the constitutional amendments leading to the establishment of military courts-for speedy trial of terrorists. Seemingly, dissuasion instead of persuasion was resorted to by the daily 'Dawn' over national interest agenda. The second research question was about the manner, the daily 'The Nation' played its role in persuasion on national interest agenda setting, through its semiotics. The data analysis revealed that 'The Nation' semiotics used various persuasion modes like metaphor, irony, symbolism and logic in favour of making constitutional amendments leading to establishment of military courts and speedy trial of terrorists. The third research question was about the difference or comparison between persuasion techniques of daily 'DAWN' and 'The Nation'. It was brought out in the study that the 'Dawn' semiotics mostly focused on satire while representing civil-military relations in establishment of military courts. The 'Dawn' cartoonists did not play much pronounced persuasive role in national interest agenda setting. However, the persuasive modes suggested by Aristotle such as logic, emotion and credibility have been frequently and effectively used by 'The Nation' cartoonists. In addition, through the use of symbolism, metaphor, labeling and satire 'The Nation' cartoonists have displayed their pro military stance. The criteria sampling is an effective method for limited level qualitative studies. However, it might not produce much valid results thereby affecting the generalizability of study findings. The study findings are much aligned with general political and ideological bent of the newspapers selected for sampling. The daily 'The Nation' is thought to be pro-establishment newspaper and daily 'Dawn' is considered as more neutral and serious in its reporting style. After passage of four years, the time has proved the efficacy of military courts in Pakistan. Now, the major wave of terrorism has been controlled by the State. Many convicts have been executed by the military courts. There is a clear decrease in terrorist attacks after functioning of military courts.

Conclusion
This research focused on the semiotics and discourses of English newspapers of Pakistan in the wake of terrorist attack on APS Peshawar in Pakistan which resulted in killing of over 140 students and children and injuring many innocents. One of its objectives was to compare the semiotics of two newspapers i.e., daily 'Dawn' and daily 'The Nation'. The study had two distinct parts namely semiotics analysis and critical discourse analysis. Qualitative approach was used in this descriptive research. The researchers devised and employed an integrated framework for data analysis by blending Barthes (1957) model of semiotics analysis and Fairclough's (1995) three-dimensional framework for critical discourse analysis (CDA). The findings revealed the use of various persuasion modes used by the cartoonists and editors of two Pakistani English newspapers. Nonetheless, the comparison between persuasion modes of 'Dawn' and 'The Nation' indicated that the semiotics of 'Dawn' did not try much to persuade the readership towards national interest agenda setting. However, 'The Nation' semiotics or political cartoons were in support of persuasion on national interest agenda of establishment of military courts-for speedy trial of terrorists.

Recommendations
Positive role of media towards national interest agenda-setting contributes significantly in perception building and persuasion. A careful comparison of ideological bent, by newspapers' readers would make them more analytical and critical about different newspapers. It is recommended that all concerned should keep comparing the coverage style of various newspapers before making value judgments on national interest agenda.