A Linguistic Investigation of Mental Health Discourse on Instagram: A Transitivity Approach

Abstract

Online discourse has contributed to the widespread dissemination of mental health awareness (MHA) worldwide. These mental health advocacies are mediated using discourse, also known as language in use. However, studies on online MHA, especially from the perspective of applied linguistics in Nigeria, appear to be few. Therefore, this study examined MHA discourse in two purposively selected Instagram platforms: Sanemind and the NEEM Sanctuary. The study’s objective is to identify the discursive contents in the selected platforms and the lexical resources in the selected MHA texts using a mixed method of data analysis. The data were analysed using the transitivity strand of the systemic functional analysis. The data analysis and discussion of findings identified three main themes of diagnosis, treatment, and recovery communicated through the transitivity processes: material, mental, verbal, relational, behavioural, and existential processes. This study concludes that the material process of ‘doing’ and ‘happening’ are the most used verbs for communicating MHA, followed by the verbal process of ‘saying’ and the relational process of ‘being’, which indicates that mental health concerns are more prone to what people do, say and their relationship with self and others. The study recommends that online content creators must ensure the lexical resources employed in mental health awareness communications are accurate, concise, and clear to avoid misrepresentation and misunderstanding of their intended messages. Thus, they may require the services of language and linguistics experts to review their online content