Scholarly Works in English
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://repository.ibadanedu.com/handle/123456789/327
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Item Vote for Us, Not for Them: Discursive Strategies and Ideological Structures in the 2015 Campaign SMS Messages for the Next Faculty Head(Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan, 2016) Osisanwo, A.Campaign messages during electioneering campaigns are often characterized by discursive strategies and ideological structures aimed at convincing electorate to vote for selected aspirants. Existing studies on political campaign messages in Nigeria have dwelt on strategies and structures used among politicians in mainstream politics to the neglect of the discourse strategies deployed among academics in campus politics, especially in the age of mobile technology. This study therefore examines the discursive strategies, ideological affiliations and discourse structures of SMS text messages sent to the electorate during the 2015 deanship election in the Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan. Using van Dijk’s model of critical discourse analysis, twenty-five texts purposively retrieved from the numerous messages sent during the period were subjected to critical discourse analysis. The findings show that the SMS messages are ideologically polarised into positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation. Six discourse strategies which manifested in the messages include representation of the starting world and negotiation of the destination world, appeal to voters’ emotions, appeal to history, appeal to experience/past achievement, counter-discourse, and creation of common ground between self and the electorate. Four ideological stances: propagandist, framist, mediator and reformist were persuasively and evaluatively developed with twelve categories of ideological discourse structure. The study concludes that there are similarities between political campaign discourses in the academic community and the larger society.