Discursive and ideological dimensions of fake news in Nigeria’s 2023 general election discourse
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 16686149 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Victor Adedayo (0000-0002-9468-2836, Oklahoma State University, corresponding author), Victory Asonibare (0000-0001-7961-4125, Thomas Adewumi University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-04-16 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Discourse & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0957-9265 • E-ISSN: 1460-3624 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/09579265261434979 |
| OpenAlex | W7154739161 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 11 |
Marked by intensified youth-led mobilization and digital activism, the Nigerian 2023 general election was shaped not only by partisan rivalry but also by a surge in disinformation. This study investigates the ideological and pragmatic strategies underpinning fake news during this electoral period. The analysis followed a qualitative analysis of 37 fact-checked fake news items from Agence France-Presse (AFP) Fact Check, using Wodak’s integrated framework of “Pragmatics and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA),” complemented by Kress and van Leeuwen’s visual-semiotic framework. Findings reveal ten recurring themes clustering around leadership health, institutional distrust, global validation, political hero/villain binaries, competence attacks, elite endorsement, electoral violence, gender representation, civic mobilization, and ethnic separatism. Across these themes, disinformation systematically deploys presupposition, implicature, fabricated authorization, identity misattribution, historical reference, and visual manipulation to naturalize ideological positions and advance partisan narratives. These narratives reproduce ideological formations such as neocolonialism, ableism, personalist politics, progressive neoliberalism, and separatist ideology. These findings position fake news as an ideological warfare that exploits Nigeria’s deep-seated ethnic and political divisions to erode institutional trust, heighten polarization, and distort democratic engagement
Critical discourse analysis · Disinformation · Elite · Ethnic group · General election · Ideology · Narrative · Politics · Corruption and Economic Development · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Social Media and Politics
Using Language
Reading Images
Legitimation in discourse and communication
Legitimating falsehood in social media
Fake news in Nigeria
Pragmatics and Critical Discourse Analysis
The Language of Fake News
Youth participation in Nigeria’s 2023 elections
Using thematic analysis in psychology
Ideology and discourse analysis
| Highly cited | No |
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