Representing Trump and Trumpism Through Caricature

This chapter focuses on the Nigerian media representations of Donald Trump's controversial policies, statements and style of government. It specifically examines Nigerian caricaturists' criticism of these aspects of American politics through a semiotic analysis of six editorial cartoons penned by Boglo G. and published in the Nigerian online magazine Nasoweseeam, from 2016 to 2018. In the light of the semiotic analysis conducted in the study, the chapter argues that Nigerian political cartoonists have continuously given a remarkable attention to U.S. politics (notably Trump's presidency), particularly exploring the angle of U.S. policies' impact on Nigeria(ns). Their cartoons have been tapping into both universal myths and local idiosyncrasies to represent the Trump administration in particular, and the American nation as a whole. Such a representation has mostly been negative. Icons, indexes and symbols have thus, most often been mobilized in their cartoons to associate Trump, Trumpism and/or America as a whole with such negativities as racism, Islamophobia, Nazism, xenophobia and authoritarianism, among others.

America as Ambivalent Superpower in Recent Mexican, Australian, and Chinese Media

America as a superpower is alleged to be able to set the news agenda through framing devices that even foreign media often mimics. A noteworthy theory explaining how this agenda is set is given by E.S. Hermann and Noam Chomsky in their propaganda model (PM). The PM model would assume educated elites in the US and in other comparable states (like China) will simply reiterate the framing narrative given by a state. Five films from non-American directors are selected and several issues the state has a consensus on are used (immigration, Iraq) to test the PM. In only three cases was the PM confirmed and even in those not for the reasons given by Hermann and Chomsky. In two cases the PM was moderately disconfirmed. While the PM is a valuable model, it needs refinement by taking more seriously how ideas by social groups in society such as feminism and gender equality complicate the agenda of the state. The conclusion makes recommendations how the PM can be better built to examine how non-Americans view America through film and the mass media.

Image of America in Northern Nigeria Radio-Based Broadcast

This chapter explores popular representations of America in Northern Nigeria radio broadcast using Greetings From America (a call-in program aimed at encouraging Nigerian citizens to seek admission and further their education in American universities) as case study. The chapter is based on a qualitative content analysis of over 15 editions of the program as well as on semi-structured interviews with the News and Current Affairs Manager of Freedom Radio Kano and other relevant informants. The chapter hinges on the propaganda and representation theories. It illustrates how Greeting From America represents a suitable window into America and a platform where Northern Nigerians living and studying in the United States mostly express positive stereotypes of America. The chapter further argues that the program's contents and reception by Northern Nigerians show all the complexity and ambivalence of U.S.'s image in Northern Nigeria. In effect, the impressions of people interviewed in this study coupled with insights drawn from relevant literary sources are sometimes conflicting with the dominantly negative image of the U.S. in Northern Nigeria's popular imagination.

The Discourse of Turkish Press on 2016 U.S. Presidential Elections and the Inauguration of Donald Trump

Academic studies that form the basis of critical paradigm are collected around the theme of “ideological mediation of texts in the media.” These studies focus on the news reports as the most influential products of the media. The aforementioned studies emphasize that objectivity, which is the leading notion in traditional journalism, is shaped in favor of the involved parties, and therefore examine the discourse of the news with the aim of revealing these aspects by utilizing a number of methods. This study analyzed how the week following the U.S. Presidential election held on November 8, 2016 and won by Donald Trump; and the week after Trump's inauguration and taking of office after President Barack Obama on January 20, 2017 were portrayed in Turkish newspapers holding different ideological stances. The study utilized van Dijk's Critical Discourse Analysis Method. The front pages of newspapers with different ideological stances such as Sözcü, Sabah and Hürriyet newspapers were taken as the samples of the study. The study results pointed that newspapers shaped their news in line with their ideological expectations as was the case in Sabah newspaper sample. It was also observed that Trump was reported as the boss of the world, the richest US president, racist, Islamophobic and nationalist in other two newspapers included in the study.

An “Infantilization” of Our Nation

This chapter examines the cognitive and social functions played by metaphors and allusions in Cameroonian media discourse on U.S. diplomacy in Cameroon. The chapter specifically focuses on how such metaphors and allusions were used in newspaper articles devoted to a U.S.-Cameroon diplomatic crisis triggered in mid May 2018 by U.S. Ambassador Henry Barlerin's advice to President Paul Biya (in power since 1982) to relinquish power and think of his legacy. The analysis reveals that the crisis was metaphorically constructed in the media as War, Neocolonialism, Slavery, Animals, Intrusion and “Infantilization” (of the Cameroonian nation) mostly in a bid to negatively represent U.S. diplomacy in Cameroon in particular, and the U.S. as a whole. These metaphors and allusions functioned more as conceptual tools simplifying or hiding specific aspects of reality and foregrounding controversial facets of U.S. diplomacy in Cameroon. They thus aimed at appealing to Cameroonian audiences' emotions and creating feelings of indignation vis-à-vis Mr. Barlerin's pronouncement.

America in the Camera Obscura of Nigerian “Videastes”

This chapter argues that, as a popular culture and a reflection of the Nigerian society, Nollywood films remarkably relay the popular myths prevailing in Nigeria. Their representations of foreign countries – notably America – are bound to be both a product and a reflection of popular myths shared by the Nigerian populace on those countries. In tandem with this, Peters Roberts' 30 Days in Atlanta and George U. Kalu's Life is Hard in America, mainly relay most Nigerians' perceptions of America. They present America as a promised land and a heaven, as well as a land of gun-happy people and a country of questionable freedoms. Given the fact that the stereotypes mentioned above similarly abound in many – if not the majority of – Hollywood film productions, one is tempted to argue that many Nollywood film directors' representations of America are not so much different from the ones constructed by their Hollywood counterparts. In other words, it is not incongruent that many Nollywood film directors simply relay Hollywood films' representations of America, thereby naturalizing or endorsing myths such as the American dream.

A Latter-Day Sodom and Babylon

This chapter examines the manner in which Nigerian bloggers and web journalists interpreted, framed and represented Obama's gay rights diplomacy in Nigeria. The chapter specifically explores the extent to which these web journalists' interpretations of the American pro-gay movement generated new religion-inspired representations of the U.S. government and Americans on the social networks. The study is based on a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of over 162 online articles generated by Nigerian citizen journalists in reaction to Obama's gay rights advocacy in Nigeria and Africa. It answers the following research questions: how did Nigerian web/citizen journalists frame Obama's pro-gay move? What was their tone? How did they represent America and its people in their articles or posts? And how did religion and culture influence the latter's representations of America and Americans?

Exploring U.S. Citizens' Perceptions of Foreign Media's Representations of America

Given their global impact, America's policies have been fueling socio-political and media discourse in countries across the globe. One hardly finds a country where news events involving the U.S. do not attract media attention or represent food for political thought. Media coverage of such events is always a propitious forum to (mis)represent the U.S. In this chapter, a critical review of literature is used to show how foreign media's representations of the U.S. have mainly varied according to three things: periods in history, U.S. presidents, and the U.S.'s ideological and socio-cultural affinities with foreign countries. The chapter equally examines American audiences' perceptions of foreign media's representations of the U.S. It argues that defining such popular perceptions is really difficult due to conflicting theories and the dearth of empirical research on the topic. The available research works however suggests that such perceptions somehow justify myths purporting that American citizens mostly tend not to be open minded towards sources that negatively portray Americans and the U.S.

Framing American Politicians Through Photo Manipulation

This chapter examines photo manipulation as a non-verbal strategy aimed at framing reality and representing American politicians in three Nigerian tabloids, namely Vanguard, Punch, and Nigeriana. The chapter specifically seeks answers to three research questions: What are some of the photo manipulation techniques used in the three newspapers? How do these techniques affect these newspapers' reports on American politics? And how does photo manipulation help frame specific aspects of American politics? Using structuralism as method of analysis, the chapter argues that Vanguard and Punch newspapers have embraced the tradition of using photomontage, photo collage and photoshopped photos to subtly dramatize news and infuse their articles with features carrying highly connotative meanings. In such photo montages and collages, shots are usually oriented in well calculated manners, or set as in photo serials and cartoons; all these in a bid to convey subliminal/connotative messages about American politicians. Such messages often endorse trivial stereotypes of American politicians.

The United States in Cuban Media

This chapter sets out to examine Granma newspaper's representation of the U.S. in its news contents published from March 2010 to December 2018. Based on a content analysis of 989 headlines collected from the tabloid's Internet archives, the chapter answers the following research questions (1) which frames are dominantly used in news headlines related to the United States, (2) how these frames vary with time, and (3) which concepts or terms appear most frequently in the corpus of headlines. The results of the study reveal that Granma newspaper exhibits various forms of anti-Americanism in its issues. It constantly portrays the U.S. as an interventionist/imperialist power that should be blamed for the economic, educational, and housing difficulties in Cuba. The newspaper tends to constantly highlight serious inconsistency between some positive Cuban government declarations about Cuba's relations with the U.S. It equally mostly uses the conflict frame in its coverage of U.S. news events. The chapter thus argues that U.S. news in Granma's columns is constantly slanted according to some psychological biases, two of which include the us vs. them and the capitalists vs. communists. Furthermore, the newspaper constantly uses voices from experts, organizations, or authorities to suggest that lifting the blockade is a matter of utmost urgency that depends entirely on the U.S. Government's decisions.