Framing right-wing populist satire: The case-study of Ghisberto’s cartoons in Italy

Abstract Over the last few years, right-wing populism has increased its popularity and political weight, successfully merging with Euro-scepticism, nationalism, xenophobia, religious symbolism, aggressive forms of conservatism (e.g., anti-feminism, homophobia, and, in general, patriarchal politics). Several studies have focused on communication strategies contemporary populism, examining latter’s use traditional new media. So far, however, little attention been paid to role language populist satire. Our study draws ideational approach explore how is expressed satirical cartoons. This perceives as a thin-centered ideology, based Manichean division between ‘good people’ ‘evil elites,’ which regularly combines other ideological components Euroscepticism, xenophobia). analysis focuses Italian cartoonist Ghisberto, known for his provocative frequently controversial work. We examine sample Ghisberto’s vignettes using multimodal tools Greimas’s notion isotopy. The aim investigate satire constructs different targets (the EU, left-wingers, migrants, NGOs, women, etc.) ideology exploits cartoons’ communicative resources power.