scholarly journals The Pragmatics of Coronavirus Motivated Humour on the Social Media

Author(s):  
EBENEZER OLUSEUN OGUNGBE ◽  
IBRAHIM OMOLABI

Humour, an established means of reducing stress and tension, has attracted scholarly attention over the years. In the Nigerian discourse context, studies on Coronavirus-Motivated Humour (CMH) are relatively new. This paper investigates humour that reflect the social, economic and health challenges in Nigeria shared through the social media in order to identify CMH as a form of humour through which real-life experiences of other people can be understood. Insights are drawn from Mey’s (2001) Pragmatic Acts Theory to analyse a total of seven purposively selected humour on Coronavirus from social media, specifically Whatsapp and Facebook. The study found out that the pragmatic relevance of CMH is embedded in its social functions as it serves as an indicator of the sense of citizens’ freedom and a pract of warning to the corrupt and inefficient leaders in Nigeria, particularly on health facilities in the country. Also, the context of CMH construction presents it as a satire of the social, economic and health experiences of the people as it reduces and reinforces status differences as well as strengthens the feeling of connectedness among people. This is achieved through the practs of informing, satirizing and mocking. The paper concludes that humours do not only make people laugh, but also comment on certain societal maladies that finger the minds of Nigerian citizens. Keywords: Coronavirus, Humour, Social Media, Pragmatics and Lockdown.

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 6-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayodele James Akinola

Humour, an established means of releasing stress and tension has attracted scholarly attention over the years. In the Nigerian discourse context, studies on Crisis-Motivated Humour (CMH) via CMC platforms are scanty. This paper investigates humour shared through the social media which reflects the socioeconomic/political challenges in Nigeria in order to identify CMH as a form of humour through which real-life experiences of other people can be understood. Ethnography of Communication and Pragmatic act theory serve as the theoretical framework. Ten anonymous humorous compositions were randomly selected from WhatsApp and Facebook. CMH is a creative composition of jokes which reflects the Nigerians’ experiences, perceptions, imaginations and assumptions. They are purposefully composed by Nigerians, in order to downplay the effects of the crisis and bring temporary reliefs to the audience. These jokes elicit amusement, high-level wits and satirise the crisis situation(s). CMH are composed mainly in English with a blend of pidgin and a reflection of some Nigerianism. They are replete with verifiable, but exaggerated facts deployed through varying practs. Use of the first person singular pronoun ‘I’ and second person singular/plural ‘you’ with the use of simple present tense of verb among other grammatical elements, are a norm. All these make some of the jokes believable and also establish CMH as a unique genre of humour with an unlimited audience. CMH are often preserve-able and re-usable and thus serve as a relevant medium through which political leaders can assess the plights of the populace and access first-hand information on the ‘real’ impacts of the crisis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 84-95
Author(s):  
Bharat Raj Dhakal

In the social context of Nepal, Gandharvas are regarded as Dalits, the people who are suppressed and silenced by the society. Such subaltern groups are thought to have no voice. They are considered ‘muted’ or ‘inarticulate’ without any agency, consciousness and power of resistance. However, breaking such boundaries, the present research aims at exploring the voices of Gandharvas expressed through their folk songs, which express their real subaltern condition and a sense of dissatisfaction towards the mechanism of society constructed and controlled by the elites. For this, some of the representative folk songs are taken and viewed from the perspective of subaltern voice, consciousness, resistance and agency developed by Antonio Gramsci, Ranjit Guha, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Partha Chatterjee and Gautam Bhadra. With the thorough analysis of their songs, it is inferred that although they are deprived of any rank and recognition in the mainstream Nepali society, they have clearly expressed their voices as well as manifested consciousness, reflecting their real life experiences marked by domination, marginalization and suppression. The manifestation of such consciousness and expression of inner voice is also used as an instrument to subvert the hegemony constructed by the complacent upper class of the society.


2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest Van Eck ◽  
Wayne Renkin ◽  
Ezekiel Ntakirutimana

The parable of the Feast (Lk 14:16b–23) is perhaps the example par excellence in the New Testament that addresses spatial justice and reconciliation. In the parable, Jesus advocates for the eradication of all boundaries linked to the social–economic status of the marginalised. The parable argues, from a social justice perspective, that there is no such thing as privileged space; priviliged space, on the contrary, builds boundaries. The reading of the parable presented critically engages with real-life experiences of marginalised people living on the periphery of the city and the boundaries that are created by megachurches in their close surroundings.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 10679
Author(s):  
Cassandra Funsten ◽  
Valeria Borsellino ◽  
Emanuele Schimmenti

Historic gardens are important parts of humanity’s built heritage within the designed landscape, providing many environmental, economic and socio-cultural benefits. Management is a key part of their conservation, perhaps the most difficult because it is costly, must be continual, and requires a skilled workforce. This systematic review looks at the literature addressing historic garden management, with special attention regarding the social, economic and environmental aspects of sustainability. Academic studies on this subject come from many different disciplines, making it both stimulating and fragmented. It is now time to consolidate these interdisciplinary efforts into a clear vision, including a framework of key themes and research methods so as to better coordinate efforts and make the information and innovation generated more accessible to the garden managers “in the trenches”. With this aim, reviewed studies are classified according to 10 criteria: supply or demand orientation; management phase involved; primary sustainability processes addressed; geographic criteria; number of sites covered; policy documents referred to; kind of data collected; study methods employed; possibility of bias specifically regarding historic gardens; garden use. An analysis of these criteria shows that historic garden management literature focuses on describing the gardens themselves, with few studies interested in the people supporting them. Future research should follow recent policy documents’ lead and pay more attention to community value and involvement.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danilo T Perez-Rivera ◽  
Christopher Torres Lugo ◽  
Alexis R Santos-Lozada

Between July 13-24, 2019 the people of Puerto Rico took the streets after a series of corruption scandals shocked the political establishment. The social uprising resulted in the ousting of the Governor of Puerto Rico (Dr. Ricardo Rosselló, Ricky), the resignation of the majority of his staff something unprecedented in the history of Puerto Rico; this period has been called El Verano del 19 (Summer of 19). Social media played a crucial role in both the organization and dissemination of the protests, marches, and other activities that occurred within this period. Puerto Ricans in the island and around the world engaged in this social movement through the digital revolution mainly under the hashtag #RickyRenuncia (Ricky Resign), with a small counter movement under the hashtag #RickySeQueda (Ricky will stay). The purpose of this study is to illustrate the magnitude and grass roots nature of the political movement’s social media presence, as well as their characteristics of the population of both movements and their structures. We found that #RickyRenuncia was used approximately one million times in the period of analysis while #RickySeQueda barely reached 6,000 tweets. Particularly, the pervasiveness of cliques in the #RickySeQueda show concentrations of authority dedicated to its propagation, whilst the #RickyRenuncia propagation was much more distributed and decentralized with little to no interaction between significant nodes of authority. Noteworthy was the role of the Puerto Rican diaspora in the United States of America and around the world, contributing close to 40% of all geo-located tweets. Finally, we found that the Twitter followers of the former governor had indicators of being composed of two distinct populations: 1) those active in social media and 2) those who follow the account but who are not active participants of the social network. We discuss the implications of these findings on the interpretation of emergence, structure and dissemination of social activism and countermovement to these activities in the context of Puerto Rico.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-18
Author(s):  
Eko Kuntarto

This research aimed to explain the model of writen conversationin the social media era, such presence of WhatsApp (WA) as well as to explore some of the positive contributions of WA used in building the Real Life Communication. By applying the Exploratory design, this research involved 4 participants as a purposively selected data source with indicators as WA users. Data were collected through Focus Group Discussion, Interview, and Observation and analyzed by several stages i.e. data reduction, displaying data, categorizing, and verifying and concluding. The results showed that Indonesia writen conversationcan decrease as the dominant use of WA was not wise. Nevertheless, the use of WA applications also had some positive contributions in building a real relationship. Finally, the assumption that the negative impact of using the WA application should be able to change the mindset and positive attitude in initiating and defending an oral interaction.


2020 ◽  
Vol V (III) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Mahwish Zeeshan ◽  
Aneela Sultana ◽  
Abid Ghafoor Chaudhry

People continue to believe in the efficacy of magic in the era of science and technology. Mythology pertaining to curative aspect of magic which is believed to solve the social, economic and medical problems of the people. Initially, a socio-economic survey of the households was conducted in Rawalpindi at Dhok Ratta and Dhok Khabba, which tapped 796 households. Later, 44 people who confessed using magic were interviewed with the help of an interview guide and participant observation at the aastaanas of the aamils. Mostly people who believed in the magical practices were inflicted with health, domestic, social and economic problems and sought magical cure as a last resort. The efficacy of magic is determined by socio-economic status, sex, marital status and education of the people rather than their belief in religion and fatalism.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-58
Author(s):  
Shehrbano Ali ◽  
Muhammad Murad Murtaza

Misinformation or "fake news" has existed in society for quite a while, with healthcare related misinformation being especially problematic, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the false news circulating on the social media, many misconceptions exist about the disease and the pandemic, leading to people reacting in extreme and unrecommended ways that cause more harm than benefit. In order to combat this, the CMH Arts and Design Society took an initiative and formed a facebook page named "Pakistan Corona Virus Research Outlook" that aimed to present well researched facts regarding COVID-19 in the form of video or poster presentations, so that they could be understood easily by the general public. We also drafted an online handbook that addressed the basic concerns regarding the signs and symptoms of the disease, and the basic principles of management, so as to equip the people without medical knowledge with sufficient information for them to be able to manage mild symptoms themselves, without burdening the healthcare system. We also formed a facebook group by the name "Corona Virus (COVID-19) Free Counselling" that aimed to provide a platform to the public to ask their queries regarding COVID-19 which were then addressed by medical professionals. A post-COVID syndrome series was also initiated on these platforms that addressed the post-COVID symptoms individually and provided a follow up plan for each, based on expert guidelines.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhuobi Luo

The dissimilation of the social functions of commercial banks is a phenomenon that the function of commercial banks deviates from the economic development and the people's livelihood. Such phenomenon, which can be seen all over the world, impedes the socio-economic development and affects the well-being of the people to some degree. After investigating and analyzing the dissimilation of the social functions of Chinese commercial banks, it was found that their social functions play a significant role, and the booming development of these banks has made great contribution to the economic growth and improved people's livelihood in China. China should also have special experience in preventing and handling this dissimilation.


Author(s):  
Arun Solanki ◽  
Ela Kumar

Delhi Metro passengers had a difficult time mostly on Monday morning as trains on the busy corridors are delayed due to technical problems or track circuit failure. This study found different factors like power failure, weather, rider load, festive season, etc. which are responsible for the delay of Delhi Metro. Due to these factors, Metro got delayed and run at a reduced speed causing much inconvenience to the people, who are hoping to reach their offices on time. Delhi Metro data are received from different sources which may be structured (timings, speed, traffic), semi-structured (images and video) and unstructured (maintenance records) form. So, there is heterogeneity in data. Except for this data, the feedback or suggestion of a rider is vital to the system. Nowadays riders are using social media like Facebook and Twitter very frequently. Three-tier architecture is proposed for the delay analysis of Delhi Metro. Different implementation techniques are studied and proposed for the social media module and delay prediction modules for the proposed system.


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