A PRAGMA-SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF POLITICAL MEMES OF THE 2023 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

In modern online discourse, memes have emerged as a strategic tool for expressing and conveying opinions and ideologies on political, economic and socio-cultural events. They have been evidently important in shaping perception of the voting public in Nigeria especially during electoral processes. On this premise, this study examines political memes shared on social media platforms in Nigeria during the 2023 presidential election, as well as analyse their linguistic and visual components. The research seeks to identify pragmatic act and semiotic resources to realise varying interpretations embedded in the memes. The problem addressed is the need to understand how political memes are conveyed online through multimodal resources and the significance of the study lies in its contribution to pragma-semiotics and online political discourse. Using a qualitative method, twenty (20) memes sourced from different social media platforms like Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and blogspots, were analysed using Mey’s (2001) Pragmatic Act and Kress and van Leuween (2006) Visual Design Grammar theories as framework for the analysis. Findings reveals that meme authors employ contextual variables such as strong criticism, persuasion, comparisons, etc. enhanced by pragmemes like shared situational knowledge, reference and metaphor to create memes aimed at lampooning electoral systems. The study further displays the deployment of semiotic designs categories under representational, interactive and compositional modes to evaluate symbolisms, framing, salience, social distancing, colour, mood as tools for visual interpretations. Results also indicate strong influence of political ideologies, age differences, political and economic instability and previous records of manipulations in the electoral system as motivating factors for the creation of this memes. Overall, ideological views though subjective, are portrayed through the political memes as tools to creating awareness against underlying illegitimate practices in the Nigerian electoral system.