Discursive strategies in Nigeria’s 2015 Facebook campaign discourse

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 471-494
Author(s):  
Oamen Felicia
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Mediated Discourse ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Political Groups

This article examined the discursive strategies employed in Facebook feedback comments which were circulated during Nigeria’s 2015 general elections’ campaigns. This was done with a view to revealing citizens’ calculated struggle for access to state resources. Data for the study comprise 2000 selected comments posted on the Facebook walls of Jimi Agbaje of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Akinwunmi Ambode of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from January to April 2015. The data were analyzed using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach, with emphasis on Fairclough’s discourse as social practice and notions from sociolinguistics and Computer-Mediated Discourse (CMD). The study reveals that commenters employed discursive strategies in the form of categorization of social groups, code switching for inclusive/exclusive discourse and representation of political groups through party symbols to characterize the in-group and others positively/negatively, respectively. Viewed against Nigeria’s challenging socio-cultural background, it could be argued that the comments though deployed to persuade reflect unequal power relations among the country’s citizenry.

scholarly journals Ambiguity as Discursive Strategy: A Critical Analysis of Pakistani Political League’s Selected Discourse Regarding Covid-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad A. Khan ◽  
Sumra M. J. Satti
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
People's Party ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Systematic Planning ◽  
Discursive Strategy ◽  
Ideological Perspective

This study unearths the ambiguities found in the discourseof prominent Pakistani political league during the outbreak of the pandemic covid-19 from the perspective of critical discourse analysis (CDA). CDA is an approach to the analysis of discourse which considers language as a social practice and takes particular interest in the ways in which ideologies and power relations are expressed through language (Fairclough, 2015). This paper presents a reflection to unveil the discursive strategies which are being used by the major Pakistanipolitical parties’ leaders as they did not come up with any plan of action pertaining to covid-19 yet. These statements are merely based on criticism only for the sake of criticism without any systematic planning and logical way out to get rid of this critical situation.  This analysis is guided by the framework of Fairclough’s model of CDA (2015) which consists of three inter-related processes of analysis tied to three inter-related dimensions of discourse. This paper highlights the ideological perspective of Prime minister Imran Khan, opposition leaders i.e., PML-N leader ShahbazShareef, Chairman Pakistan People’s Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and MolanaFazal-u-Rehman. This study found out that the statements which are given by the major political parties on different political forums are full of vague ideas and uncertainty about Coronavirus outbreak which is, in a way,an evidence regarding their failure to understand and tackle the dire situation.

Political Communication and Popular Literature: An Analysis of Political Jingles in Nigerian Electoral Discourse

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-208
Author(s):  
Oluwasegun Omidiora ◽  
Esther Ajiboye ◽  
Taiwo Abioye
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Popular Literature ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
Electoral Campaigns ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Cultural Implications ◽  
General Elections

To win the support of the electorates, Nigerian politicians engage diverse resources during electoral campaigns. Some of these resources include political jingles. This study examines political discursive practices and their socio-cognitive functions in the political jingles of the 2015 general elections in Nigeria. This is to illuminate the politicians’ sociopolitical evaluations of the electorates. The data for this study comprise 50 political jingles of the presidential campaigns of the two major political parties in the country, the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the main opposition party, the All Progressive Congress (APC). This study is anchored on linguistic and literary theoretical perspectives using Critical Discourse Analysis and Sociology of Literature, respectively, to reveal the inherent meanings in, and socio-cultural implications of, the discourse of the sampled political jingles. Data analysis identifies political jingles as face-saving, assertive and educative acts. It also notes that implicatures, names, lexemes, religious allusions, evidentiality and code-switching are ideologically employed in the political jingles to enhance the politicians’ personalities and acceptance among the electorates.

scholarly journals Critical Discourse Analysis on Lagu Untuk Pak Bupati a Study of Banyumas Regional Head Election

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Rosdiana Puspita Sari ◽  
Gigih Ariastuti Purwandari ◽  
Chusni Hadiati ◽  
Eni Nuraeni
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Language And Power ◽  
Text Production

Regional head election in Indonesia has successfully conducted in June 27, 2018. It is a kind of people democratic party which is held in most parts of Indonesia regions. Many ways have been conducted by those who were nominated to the position. Language as a means of communication takes important role in this agenda. Regional head election becomes popular theme in several songs to promote candidates. This language phenomenon is interesting since the songs does not merely show its lyrics but it also display power. Critical Discourse Analysis gives makes it possible to reveal the relation between language and power. This article shows how language exhibit power through three levels of CDA that contain linguistic feature, text production, and social practice.   Keyword : Song, regional head election, critical discourse analysis, social practice, text production  

scholarly journals A Critical Discourse Analysis of Representations of Travellers in Public Policies in Ireland

Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Claire Jane Snowdon ◽  
Leena Eklund Eklund Karlsson
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Discursive Practice ◽  
Negative Stereotypes

In Ireland, negative stereotypes of the Traveller population have long been a part of society. The beliefs that surround this minority group may not be based in fact, yet negative views persist such that Travellers find themselves excluded from mainstream society. The language used in discourse plays a critical role in the way Travellers are represented. This study analyses the discourse in the public policy regarding Travellers in the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy (NTRIS) 2017–2021. This study performs a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the policy with the overall aims of showing signs of the power imbalance through the use of language and revealing the discourses used by elite actors to retain power and sustain existing social relations. The key findings show that Travellers are represented as a homogenous group that exists outside of society. They have no control over how their social identity is constructed. The results show that the constructions of negative stereotypes are intertextually linked to previous policies, and the current policy portrays them in the role of passive patients, not powerful actors. The discursive practice creates polarity between the “settled” population and the “Travellers”, who are implicitly blamed by the state for their disadvantages. Through the policy, the government disseminates expert knowledge, which legitimises the inequality and supports this objective “truth”. This dominant discourse, which manifests in wider social practice, can facilitate racism and social exclusion. This study highlights the need for Irish society to change the narrative to support an equitable representation of Travellers.

scholarly journals The Enemy Next Door: The Image of Russia in Georgian and Ukrainian Political Discourses Amid Conflicts Escalation

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 194-203
Author(s):  
Aram Terzyan
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Image Representation ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
The Core ◽  
Standing Up

Abstract This article presents an analysis of the evolution of Russia’s image representation in Georgian and Ukrainian political discourses amid Russian-Georgian and Russian-Ukrainian conflicts escalation. Even though Georgia’s and Ukraine’s troubled relations with neighboring Russia have been extensively studied, there has been little attention to the ideational dimensions of the confrontations, manifested in elite narratives, that would redraw the discursive boundaries between “Us” and “Them.” This study represents an attempt to fill the void, by examining the core narratives of the enemy, along with the discursive strategies of its othering in Georgian and Ukrainian presidential discourses through critical discourse analysis. The findings suggest that the image of the enemy has become a part of “New Georgia’s” and “New Ukraine’s” identity construction - inherently linked to the two countries’ “choice for Europe.” Russia has been largely framed as Europe’s other, with its “inherently imperial,” “irremediably aggressive” nature and adherence to illiberal, non-democratic values. The axiological and moral evaluations have been accompanied by the claims that the most effective way of standing up to the enemy’s aggression is the “consolidation of democratic nations,” coming down to the two countries’ quests for EU and NATO membership.

Constructing the myth of protest masculinity in Chinese English language news media

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yating Yu ◽  
Mark Nartey
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
English Language ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Social Harmony ◽  
Chinese Media ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
News Reports ◽  
The Media

Although the Chinese media’s construction of unmarried citizens as ‘leftover’ has incited much controversy, little research attention has been given to the ways ‘leftover men’ are represented in discourse. To fill this gap, this study performs a critical discourse analysis of 65 English language news reports in Chinese media to investigate the predominant gendered discourses underlying representations of leftover men and the discursive strategies used to construct their identities. The findings show that the media perpetuate a myth of ‘protest masculinity’ by suggesting that poor, single men may become a threat to social harmony due to the shortage of marriageable women in China. Leftover men are represented as poor men, troublemakers and victims via discursive processes that include referential, predicational and aggregation strategies as well as metaphor. This study sheds light on the issues and concerns of a marginalised group whose predicament has not been given much attention in the literature.

scholarly journals Beyond Hegemony: Elaborating on the Use of Gramscian Concepts in Critical Discourse Analysis for Political Studies

2017 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 392-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Donoghue
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Antonio Gramsci ◽  
Political Studies ◽  
Asymmetrical Power

The work of Antonio Gramsci is important for the theoretical underpinnings of critical discourse analysis. However, many scholars’ engagement with Gramsci’s work within critical discourse analysis remains surprisingly thin. This article seeks to highlight the detriment to critical discourse analysis of having only a surface engagement with Gramsci. It critically assesses how Gramscian concepts such as hegemony and ‘common sense’ are currently employed within critical discourse analysis and provides more detailed discussion on the import of these concepts for critical discourse analysis. The article also argues that introducing the Gramscian concepts of the war of position and spontaneous and normative grammars enables the further realisation of critical discourse analysis’ ambition to be an emancipatory tool in political and social science. In so doing, the article contributes to work on critical discourse analysis as a method in political studies, particularly concerning the role of discourse in reproducing and maintaining asymmetrical power relations between classes and social groups, and potential challenges to this.

scholarly journals Scottish Press Coverage of UK General Elections after Devolution: the 2001 and 2005 Campaigns

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Dekavalla
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Research Project ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Selection Of

This paper presents preliminary findings from a wider study into the form that political debate takes in Scottish and English/UK newspapers’ reporting of the 2001 and the 2005 UK Elections. The research project aims to contribute to the discussion regarding the role played by the Scottish press in political deliberation after devolution and compares its contribution to the electoral debate with that of newspapers bought in England. This paper explores the results of a content analysis of articles from daily Scottish and UK newspapers during the four weeks of each election campaign period. This reveals that, despite some differences, the overall picture of the coverage of major election issues is consistent. A selection of the coverage of taxation, the most mentioned reserved issue in the 2001 campaign, is subsequently analysed using critical discourse analysis, and the results suggest more distinction between the two sets of newspapers.

scholarly journals The Journalistic Representations of Saudi Women in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA): A Corpus Critical Discourse Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 320
Author(s):  
Waheed M. A. Altohami ◽  
Amir H. Y. Salama
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
American English ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Context Model ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Saudi Women

This paper is a corpus critical discourse analysis of the journalistic representations of Saudi women as they appear in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) (Davies, 2008). It follows a sociocognitive approach (van Dijk, 2008) to explore the thematic foci discussing issues related to Saudi women and to discuss the discursive strategies implemented to propagate such issues. The study has reached four findings. First, the thematic foci related to Saudi women are textually and referentially coherent as they were meant to provide a grand narrative underlying a specific context model. Second, Saudi women are negatively represented as no social roles are ascribed to them throughout the corpus. Third, different social actors are also represented alongside Saudi women to put them in a wider socio-cultural context to aggravate their problems. Finally, the most effective discursive strategies which mediated the running context model included victimization, categorization, stereotyping, normalization, and exaggeration.

scholarly journals Moving in a Gyre: A Discourse Analysis of President Rouhani’s De Facto Inaugural Speech

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 237
Author(s):  
Rahman Sahragard ◽  
Meisam Moghadam
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Formal Structure ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Lexical Choice ◽  
Inaugural Speech ◽  
Political Groups

<em>The purpose of this study is to critically analyze the discourse of the de facto inaugural speech presented by president Rouhani while receiving his presidential percept from the leader, to seek the ideology beyond his speech and to detect the point that to which of discourses, reformists’ or principalists’, Rouhani’s discourse belong to. Based on Dijk’s socio-cognitive model of critical discourse analysis the selected corpus’ ideological and persuasive components are assessed. To this end and based on the model, the historical, political or social background of the election is discussed firstly. Then, the political groups and parties, specifically reformists and principalists, their ideologies and power relations are elaborated. Finally, based on the examination of all formal structure, lexical choice and syntactic structure, the presupposed and the implied notions are made explicit, to determine the ideology beyond the formal text. Comparing the extracted notions from the speech with the polarized viewpoints of two political parties, it was concluded that Rouhani tried to keep the golden middle path while presenting his ideas, trying to introduce himself a moderate person and base all his plans on moderation. His speech revealed the strategies to move in a gyre of ideas trying to avoid condemning any party or person of eminence in line to keep all parties in one line to make his move.</em>

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