A Discourse Analytic Study of #FixTheCountry on Ghanaian Twitter

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2414535
AutoresMark Nartey (0000-0001-8386-6616, University of the West of England), Yating Yu (0000-0002-9416-0130, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, autor correspondente)
Ano2023
Volume9
Fascículo1
Data de publicação2023-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSocial Media + Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2056-3051 • E-ISSN: 2056-3051
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/20563051221147328
OpenAlexW4313522113
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas13
Referências citadas34

This article analyzes tweets produced during the 'fix the country' campaign on Ghanaian Twitter. It illustrates how the affordances of social media can empower campaigners and how linguistic choices, even on digital platforms, can be conditioned by sociocultural context, spatiotemporal factors, and local politics. The findings reveal three main discursive strategies utilized in the tweets to construct the protest as a discourse of contestation intended to resist social inequalities and promote a shared vision: (1) depicting the Ghanaian government as irresponsible, (2) portraying the Ghanaian people as victims, and (3) issuing a clarion call to action. These strategies were framed with various linguistic resources, and they enabled the protesters to recruit support for their objectives, mobilize the masses for social action, and lay the foundation for an offline demonstration. The article holds implications for the burgeoning scholarship on framing processes and the discursive strategies of online social movements

Affordance · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Public sphere · Scholarship · Social media · Social movement · Sociocultural evolution · Sociology · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology · Social Media and Politics