A Semiotic Analysis of Ukraine-US Relations through the Lens of Political Cartoons

Abstract

This study is an attempt to investigate the sense of semiotic analysis of political cartoons that appeared in digital media during the tense meeting between President Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy on February 28, 2025, in the Oval Office of the White House. The investigation explores the complex meanings exchanged during the showdown meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy. A global platform for editorial cartoons and journalism websites, CARTOON MOVEMENT, is selected by the researcher as the source of data collection for seven selected political cartoons pertaining to the explosive meeting between the two presidents in the Oval Office at the White House that took place on February 28th, 2025. The cartoonists caricatured the cartoons between February 28th, 2025, and March 3rd, 2025. To classify and analyze the chosen political cartoons from the most popular cartoon internet domain, the present study applies Barth's (1968, 1977) model of semiotic analysis in the best interests of data analysis. The findings reveal how political cartoons shape political discourse. The researcher discovered that the political cartoons on US and Ukraine relations depict a lack of diplomacy in politics and how clashes in negotiations killed the diplomatic norms and respect with which cartoonists enact meaning through the texts, icons, and symbols.