HEURISTIC CUES AND CONTEXTUAL FEATURES OF SELECTED TWEETS OF ATIKU ABUBAKAR: A MULTIMODAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Computer mediated discourse and political engagement  deals with the role of the medium in fostering political participation. Researches in this field have included a critical discourse analysis of language use within the platform, issues of social interaction and social capital, flaming and mobilization. These studies however, have not been able to capture the vast data available in computer mediated discourse especially within the context of online discourse in Nigeria. In order to harness other multimodal features of the platform there is need for an integrative approach that will capture the vast data made available in the platform. In this regard, this study adopted a revision of Herring’s  multimodal computer mediated communication discourse analytic approach and insights from Kress and Leeuwen’s  multimodal discourse analysis to suggest an integrative approach that would capture some intricate features of computer mediated discourse such as multimodes and context with the aid of qualitative and quantitative approach, thereby examining the automated multimodes as semiotic nodes and the contextual features  used in Abubakar Atiku twitter update . This study revealed that multimodes, context and linguistic items constitute discourse that aid political mobilization and participation across social media contexts. More specifically the virtual platform is a strong tool for political mobilization and could be used by political authors in fostering citizenship participation. The platform if properly harnessed can also serve educational purposes. Furthermore, some portions of the  3-level integrative approach to computer mediated discourse suggested in this study, serve as a resource tool for researchers and scholars interested in multimodal computer mediated discourse analysis.