‘Nigeria is fighting Covid-419’: A multimodal critical discourse analysis of political protest in Nigerian coronavirus-related internet memes

Unuabonah, Foluke Olayinka; Oyebode, Oluwabunmi O.

doi:10.1177/1750481320982090

Cited by 22 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Five years after her Editorial, we can safely conclude that researchers have taken on the importance of considering the online context in the study of activism. Indeed, various studies have investigated online forms of activism (Abidin and Zeng, 2020;Borbáth et al, 2021;Graham et al, 2021;Haßler et al, 2021;Haupt et al, 2021;Unuabonah and Oyebode, 2021;Hunt, 2022). Even more interestingly, two of the studies went one step further and investigated the consequences that the obligatory transition to online activities, related to the pandemic-related restrictions, caused to activism: Margolies and Strub (2021) examined the formation of an online community, in place of the preexisting live meetings, and discussed how this was an example of continuity and transformation (for example, the new online community transcended the borders between USA and Mexico).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is interesting to observe how the inductive approach was used not only to derive knowledge and meaning from interviews conducted ad hoc but also to extract knowledge from artifacts created outside the specific research context. Unuabonah and Oyebode (2021) used multimodal discourse analysis to examine political protest in 40 internet memes circulated among Nigerian WhatsApp users during COVID-19. Multimodal discourse analysis is an approach that looks at multiple modes of communication (e.g., text, color, and images) to understand how individuals interact to create semiotic meaning (Caldas-Coulthard and van Leeuwen, 2003).…”

Section: Qualitative Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Theoretical and methodological approaches to activism during the COVID-19 pandemic— between continuity and change

Coen¹,

Vezzoli²,

Zogmaister³

2022

Front. Polit. Sci.

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In order to understand the way in which scholars approach the study of activism at a time of crisis, a scoping review was conducted to identify the extant empirical work on activism during the COVID-19 crisis. Our search resulted in 23 published papers across disciplines. Results showed elements of continuity and change in scholars' theoretical and empirical approaches to new and old forms of activism emerging at this time of crisis. In general, we found that COVID-19 led to the employment of novel and adaptive approaches from both the activists and the researchers, who tactically modified their strategies in light of the new demands. We conclude by suggesting that incorporating an analysis of the tools of protest, combined with an analysis of the adaptive strategies adopted by communities at a time of crisis might further our understanding of the ontology—as well as the epistemology—of social movements. Moreover, the study highlighted existing tensions between academia and other social stakeholders, which deserve further exploration.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Qualitative Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theoretical and methodological approaches to activism during the COVID-19 pandemic— between continuity and change

Coen¹,

Vezzoli²,

Zogmaister³

2022

Front. Polit. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Also, Ajayi and Akinrinlola's (2021) multimodal analytic approach explored the diverse pragmatic functions of the Covid-19-related memes and the implications they have in medical discourse. Another study adopted a multimodal critical discourse analysis approach in the examination and categorisation of memes into the functions they perform, particularly in the political domain (Unuabonah & Oyebode 2021). The central conception is that the creations convey restricted contextual meanings to the Nigerian interactants during the period of the pandemic (Uwen & Ellah 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Every corona is not a virus

Uwen

2023

EJHR

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This study is a visual semiotics analysis of Coronavirus memetic humour, aimed at ascertaining the implied meanings of selected Covid-19 related Facebook memes that stimulated virtual discourse among Nigerian netizens during the pandemic. The study adopts Visual Semiotics Theory and Encryption Theory of Humour to account for meanings derived from the presuppositional assumptions and shared sociocultural knowledge which serve as the decrypting ‘key’ to meaning. The ‘key’ activates the appropriate disambiguation and interpretation of the significations in the semiotic resources conveyed in the humorous memes. Nineteen Facebook Covid-19 related memes were selected as a representative sample for a descriptive and qualitative analysis. The analysis is coded into 11 discourse domains based on the related semiotic contents of the memes which include: preventive protocol, media reportage, religious beliefs, health sector, sociopolitical domain, socioeconomic domain, security, science, transportation, relationship and lifestyle to account for the differentials in perceptions by Nigerian netizens. Findings show that Nigerians created Coronavirus memetic humour to stimulate laughter in the rather consequential circumstances generated by the pandemic derived from the humorous contents of the image macros. In the Nigerian social context, the Coronavirus memes humorously instantiate the apprehension and helplessness of a people, and thrive to express protest, insecurity, corruption, religiosity, economic hardship and a poor health system. These, altogether combine as a myriad of the challenges facing a people who consolably devised coping strategies to trivialise the pandemic, while yearning for an inclusive government that prioritises the welfare of its citizens.

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“…However, similar research efforts are still largely very few in Nigeria. Although scholars such as Unuabonah and Oyebode (2021) have adopted a multimodal discourse approach to study covid-19 memes as political protests in Nigeria, literature on multimodal discourse analysis of the pandemic as a public health enlightenment campaign is sparse. Generally, the study of online public health discourse is yet to receive adequate attention among scholars in Nigeria.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multimodal discourse study of selected COVID-19 online public health campaign texts in Nigeria

Ope-Davies

Shodipe

2023

Discourse & Society

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This paper discusses web-based public health discursive practices during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Nigeria. It utilises a multimodal discourse approach to explore how a combination of textual and visual resources was deployed to communicate informative and educative public health safety campaigns during the period. Essentially, this study discusses multimodal resources as a rhetorical technique for creating a public discursive engagement space designed to educate the public and mitigate the effect of the pandemic. The dataset was collected during and after the lockdown in 2020 (March–September) through media monitoring and manual downloading of relevant online COVID-19 posts, messages and public health advisories largely from WhatsApp platforms and the portals of some Nigerian national newspapers. Using insights from relevant approaches in discourse analysis (e.g. Multimodal Discourse and Critical Discourse Analysis), we adopted a qualitative content analysis approach to analyse on how online posts as multimodal resources amplify the role of social media affordances in producing and promoting public safety messages helped to control the spread and mitigate the effects of the pandemic. The study also shows that discursive and multimodal resources were deliberately deployed to increase the effectiveness of the technology-driven public health campaign. To a large extent, multimodal resources were found to complement lexico-semantic properties of online communication, where social media messages are created, crafted and reconstructed within a uniquely Nigerian public discourse context. The study further illustrates the increasing importance of web-based platforms as discursive sites for enacting and negotiating meanings during event-driven social activities and public engagement in the Global South.

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‘Nigeria is fighting Covid-419’: A multimodal critical discourse analysis of political protest in Nigerian coronavirus-related internet memes

Cited by 22 publications

References 28 publications

Theoretical and methodological approaches to activism during the COVID-19 pandemic— between continuity and change

Theoretical and methodological approaches to activism during the COVID-19 pandemic— between continuity and change

Every corona is not a virus

A multimodal discourse study of selected COVID-19 online public health campaign texts in Nigeria

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