Advocacy and civic engagement in protest discourse on Twitter: An examination of Ghana’s #OccupyFlagstaffHouse and #RedFriday campaigns

Nartey, Mark

Abstract

This article examines tweets produced by Occupy Ghana during its #OccupyFlagstaffHouse and #RedFriday campaigns. It sheds light on how activist discourses are most persuasively narrativized when they capitalize on local sentiment and language features characteristic of local communities and audiences. The findings reveal three mechanisms employed in the tweets: constructing the Ghanaian government as insensitive, representing Ghanaians as the suffering masses, and exploiting stance for sociopolitical objectives. The article highlights the synergy between social movement theory and social media critical discourse studies.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 4, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Oct 19, 2022
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Oct 20, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 20, 2024
• Journal: Communication and Critical/ Cultural Studies
• Print ISSN: 1479-1420
• Electronic ISSN: 1479-4233
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 385-401
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420.2022.2130950
• Keywords: social media, critical discourse analysis, identity and solidarity, online activism, social movement
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10101260
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14791420.2022.2130950