Critique of the repression of Palestinian media in Arabic caricatures on the Instagram account @rahma_toons (a Piercean semiotic study)

Firmansyah, Akhmad and Hakim, Arief Rahman ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2669-965X (2025) Critique of the repression of Palestinian media in Arabic caricatures on the Instagram account @rahma_toons (a Piercean semiotic study). Modality Journal: International Journal of Linguistics and Literature, 5 (2). pp. 127-140. ISSN 2798-0723 (Online) / 2798-1258 (Print)

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Abstract

This study addresses the central question of how five Arabic political caricatures posted by @rahma_toons account represent media repression against Palestinian journalists amid escalating violence in Gaza. The background to the issue stems from the increasing targeting of journalists and the limited number of visual semiotics studies that interpret the dynamics of violence through digital caricatures. The novelty of this research lies in the use of caricatures as visual texts to reveal epistemic repression, patterns of attacks on journalists, and approaches that are still rarely discussed in Middle Eastern media studies. The research questions are answered through descriptive qualitative methods using Charles Sanders Peirce's semiotic framework, which analyzes visual signs to reveal the dominant patterns of meaning embedded in caricatures. The analysis revealed three dominant patterns: journalists as marked targets, destruction of equipment as erasure of truth, and systematic silencing. These findings demonstrate that digital caricatures function as counter-narratives that expose structural violence and preserve collective memory when mainstream media channels are constrained

Item Type:	Journal Article
Keywords:	semiotics; media repression; Peirce; Palestinian journalists; Arabic caricature
Subjects:	20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 2004 Linguistics > 200403 Discourse and Pragmatics 20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 2005 Literary Studies > 200527 Arabic Literature (al-Adab al-‘Arabī) 20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 2004 Linguistics
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities > Department of Arabic Language and Letters
Depositing User:	M.Pd I. Arief Rahman Hakim
Date Deposited:	11 May 2026 13:30

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