Party Animals of the 2016 Presidential Primaries

Political Cartoon Representations of the Republican and Democratic Parties

Bibliographic Data

ID3757391
AuthorsJoan L Conners (Randolph–Macon College, Ashland, VA, USA, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume61
Issue6
Pages600-610
Publication date2017-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0002764217722249
OpenAlexW2738349943
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited15

This analysis of political cartoon coverage of the 2016 presidential primaries found considerable attention given to the political parties themselves, as well as issues, and controversies the parties were facing. In political cartoons, the Republican and Democratic parties were usually reflected in animal representations of the elephant and donkey. A qualitative textual analysis of cartoon images from U.S. newspapers found a number of themes emerged in 2016 with regard to the party animals: Both parties were portrayed expressing reluctance or hesitancy in their party's nominee, the Republican Party in particular was represented as helpless to stop the political success that Donald Trump saw in the primaries, and the Democratic Party was portrayed as divided between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. These themes found in political cartoon images suggest how the two dominant political parties operate in electoral politics today

Democracy · Media studies · Newspaper · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Presidential campaign · Presidential system · Sociology · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Humor Studies and Applications · Law · Rhetoric and Communication Studies

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