‘A threat to national unity, an emancipator’: discourse construction of the Yoruba nation secessionist agitation in selected Nigerian digital communities
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In: Critical Discourse Studies, Vol. 21, No. 6, 2024, p. 647-663.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘A threat to national unity, an emancipator’
T2 - discourse construction of the Yoruba nation secessionist agitation in selected Nigerian digital communities
AU - Osisanwo, Ayo
AU - Akano, Richard
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - The recently resurged Yoruba Nation (YN, henceforth) agitation joins some socio-political movements, social protests, and resistance group discourse in Nigeria that continue to gain traction in (critical) discourse studies. Guided by the theoretical paradigms of van Leeuwen’s representational strategies and Martin and White’s appraisal framework, 24 representative posts out of a thousand posts culled from Nairaland, Gistmania, and Naijaloaded generated between October 2020 and October 2021 were purposively selected and subjected to discourse analysis. Two levels of construction were realised: YN agitators and YN agitation. YN agitators were associated with four constructions: cowards, violence mongers, terrorists, and organised strategists. YN agitation was associated with three constructions: a threat to sovereignty and national unity, and emancipation from oppression. Negative labels manifested more than positives. The dominant negative constructs of the YN agitation manifested implicitly and explicitly through labelling, negative comparison, appeal to sentiments, expression of detest, and flaming, while the positive constructs manifested through encomium and appeal to ethnic benefit. Online participants do not only project and spread their ideological stances on the YN agitation; they also make efforts to suppress antithetical stances.
AB - The recently resurged Yoruba Nation (YN, henceforth) agitation joins some socio-political movements, social protests, and resistance group discourse in Nigeria that continue to gain traction in (critical) discourse studies. Guided by the theoretical paradigms of van Leeuwen’s representational strategies and Martin and White’s appraisal framework, 24 representative posts out of a thousand posts culled from Nairaland, Gistmania, and Naijaloaded generated between October 2020 and October 2021 were purposively selected and subjected to discourse analysis. Two levels of construction were realised: YN agitators and YN agitation. YN agitators were associated with four constructions: cowards, violence mongers, terrorists, and organised strategists. YN agitation was associated with three constructions: a threat to sovereignty and national unity, and emancipation from oppression. Negative labels manifested more than positives. The dominant negative constructs of the YN agitation manifested implicitly and explicitly through labelling, negative comparison, appeal to sentiments, expression of detest, and flaming, while the positive constructs manifested through encomium and appeal to ethnic benefit. Online participants do not only project and spread their ideological stances on the YN agitation; they also make efforts to suppress antithetical stances.
KW - Appraisal framework
KW - critical discourse analysis
KW - Nigerian digital communities
KW - stance
KW - Yoruba nation secessionist agitation
KW - English
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85159273288&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/8e7665e0-6893-34b8-bb42-e7770571857d/
U2 - 10.1080/17405904.2023.2211176
DO - 10.1080/17405904.2023.2211176
M3 - Journal articles
AN - SCOPUS:85159273288
VL - 21
SP - 647
EP - 663
JO - Critical Discourse Studies
JF - Critical Discourse Studies
SN - 1740-5904
IS - 6
ER -