The Sign in the Picture of the TOP NEWS News Group

Abstract

The study entitled The Sign in the Picture of the TOP NEWS News Group was conducted with the purpose to study signs and the symbolic meaning of figures found in the TOP NEWS group which is a Facebook group with a target of TOP NEWS followers. The results of the study indicated that 24 figures have political signs. All 24 figures could be considered to present negative attitudes while none were found with positive attitudes. Most figures were found with messages in offensive, insulting, and dehumanizing manners, and human-animal comparative figures were made to defame public figures. The figures also relate to the opposition’s criticisms of the government. In the current study, the data were collected from 24 figures published from 1 January 2022 to 30 June 2022 in the TOP NEWS Facebook group. Two issues of analysis including political issues and signs in the figures were employed. 1) In terms of the political issues in the figures found in the TOP NEWS Facebook group, it can be summarized that most figures were made with public figures’pictures such as ironic pictures or political cartoons of politicians. Each figure had messages or articles related to politics such as government work progresses. 2) In terms of signs found in the TOP NEWS following Facebook group, it can be summarized that 11 figures include 4.1, 4.4, 4.5, 4.9, 4.13, 4.14, 4.15, 4.16, 4.20, 4.23, and 24 were found to be directional. This included the use of political discourses with the picture of speakers such as a politician with his/her speech. Moreover, 13 figures including 4.2, 4.3, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8, 4.10, 4.11, 4.12, 4.17, 4.18, 4.19, 4.21, and 4.22 were found to be symbolic. This included ironic pictures, messages, and cartoons with symbolic content related to speech and political issues. These figures were found to have messages and pictures that demand interpretation to comprehend issues expressed by message senders. Keyword : The sign, Picture, Interpret