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David Rowe's Political Cartoon 'Operation Sovereign Borders'

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Political cartoons allow cartoonists to graphically comment on controversial political issues and events in society. As an abundance of these cartoons are purposely illustrated in a humorous manner, their focal purpose is not only amuse but to ensure the impression conveyed by the cartoonist challenges the audiences’ perception on the issue presented. David Rowe’s cartoon, which appeared in the Australian Financial Review magazine on November 10th 2013, condemns the Tony Abbott government’s implementation of the military operation dubbed "Operation Sovereign Borders" on the “Stop the Boats" policy. This political movement has therefore, limits access to information relating to the issue to the public and media. Through the use of key satirical devices, particularly: caricature, symbolism, visual metaphors, analogy and captioning David Rowe has negatively displayed the Abbott Government’s apathetic attempt to drip feed Australians information of its asylum seeker stand-off with Indonesia. In David Rowe’s political cartoon ordinary aspects express extraordinary significance, to decisively convey his negative impression of the Abbott government. The relativity of the context to the cartoon is linked through the illustration of the infamous red budgie smugglers, relating Tony Abbott’s influence. In addition to the the bow on the trunks symbolising the ‘tying’ of parties to the issue; the conjunction of ‘garbage’, consisting of fish heads, symbolises both the Abbott government’s straining of information of border security and the ’Operation Sovereign Borders’ catching illegal immigrants. David Rowe incorporates Australians’ response to the issue in his political cartoon through the metaphorical symbolism to characterise Australians as …show more content…

The political cartoon’s dark mood is further evident through the decisive positioning of the political personalities as behind the fence symbolising concept of secrecy within the government who David Rowe has intentionally

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