A stylistic investigation of selected internet discourses as tools for national development
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Abstract
Pictorial and verbal representative forms are a common phenomenon in internet discourse. Previous studies have looked at the linguistic - stylistic features of internet discourse, and also how internet language affects everyday use of language, but have not adequately accounted for the communicative effect of using pictures and videos with verbal forms in internet discourse. This paper investigated Twitter and Instagram to explore the stylistic form of combining pictorial and verbal representations to create meanings and examined the extent to which these combinations of visuals and written texts in internet discourse serve as tools for national development. Data was sourced from Twitter and Instagram purposively, for their handling of national issues. The theoretical framework for data analysis rest on systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis (SF-MDA) - by (Kress and van Leeuwen 1996/2006), which considers the communicative function and effects of pictures, videos, arts (visual devices) in the media. Findings indicate that participants in internet discourse decisively expend the multimodal resources available to them on those platforms to communicate creativity, create awareness for goods and services available, share and create professional synergies, skills, and prowess, circulate news and information and also lend a voice to social and national issues that arise: quite often seeking for action or redress beyond the internet thereby fostering national unity, checkmating the activities of authorities and expanding youth empowerment and sector development in the nation. Verbal and visual elements pose a very high communicative value and enhance meaning making in internet discourse.
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