Multimodal Analysis of Visual Framing in Bola Tinubu’s Presidential Campaign Video
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18533/m2j6wp47Abstract
This paper analyses a political campaign video from the perspective of multimodal visual and emotional framing. Using a case study of a campaign video by then-presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu, now the incumbent President of Nigeria, who stated in Yoruba, “Emi ló kán” (“It is my turn”), I employ Systemic Visual Grammar to reveal how visual frames are used to highlight key topics for a successful political campaign. The results show that (i) emotional and visual semiotics are utilized to frame the topic of legitimation, and (ii) visual frames related to elite closure, kinship, and ethno-religious resources emphasise the importance of performing a speech act with the appropriate thematic salience. The paper concludes that the utilisation of the right themes in speech act can be exploited for political gain.
References
Acheampong, M. (2023). Overpromising and Underdelivering? Digital Technology in Nigeria’s 2023 Presidential Elections, GIGA Focus Africa, 2, Hamburg: German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), https://doi.org/10.57671/gfaf-23022
Adedina, F. and Taiwo V.T. (2020). Colour Symbolism as Cultural Element in Selected Tunde Kelani’s Video Films. LASU Journal of African Studies, 8(1) 20-34 https://lasujournalofafricanstudies.org.ng/files/1660418197.pdf
Ademilokun, M. and Olateju, M. (2020). A Multimodal Critical Study of Selected Political Rally Campaign Discourse of 2011 Elections in Southwestern Nigeria. Language and Semiotic Studies, Vol. 6 (Issue 3), pp. 72-95. https://doi.org/10.1515/lass-2020-060304
Adesanya, A.O. (2018). Non-Verbal Communication of Colour in Yoruba Novels. International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, 2(12),507-513.
Aduradola, R.R and Ojukwu, C.C (2013). Language of political campaigns and politics in Nigeria. Canadaian Social Science.9(3) 103-116.
Agboga, V. (2024). ‘Testing political loyalties in Nigeria: what factors influence support for party switchers?’, The Round Table, 113(2), pp. 117–130. doi: 10.1080/00358533.2024.2333199.
Agboga, V. (2023). Nigerian electoral black market: Where do party switchers go and why does it matter? Africa Spectrum. https://doi.org/10.1177/00020397231211930
Angerbrandt, H. (2020). Party system institutionalization and the 2019 state elections in Nigeria. Regional & Federal Studies, 3(30), 415–440. https://doi.org/10.1080/13597566.2020.1758073
Ansolabehere, S.D, Shanto , I and Adam. S. (1994). Does Attack Advertising Demobilize the Electorate? American Political Science Review 88:829-838.
Appel,M. and Prietzel,F.(2022). The detection of political deepfakes, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 27(4), zmac008, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmac008
Ardèvol-Abreu, A. (2015). Framing theory in communication research in Spain: Origins, development and current situation. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social ,70. 423–450.
Ayeni, O. O. (2019). Commodification of Politics: Party Funding and Electoral Contest in Nigeria. Sage Open, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019855855
Ayuwo, J. G. I. (2022). “A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Some Newspapers Campaign Advertisements for Nigeria’s 2019 Elections and Their Appeal Strategies”. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(5), pp. 176–190. doi: 10.14738/assrj.95.12354.
Bachmann, I., & Valenzuela, S. (2023). Studying the Downstream Effects of Fact-Checking on Social Media: Experiments on Correction Formats, Belief Accuracy, and Media Trust. Social Media + Society, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051231179694
Bartels,L.M.(1987). "Candidate choice and the dynamics of the presidential nomination process. American Journal of Political Science, 31: 1-30.
Blumler, J. (1990). ‘Elections, the Media and the Modern Publicity Process’, In M.
Ferguson (ed) Public Communication: The New Imperatives. London: Sage, 101-113.
Blumler, J. and Kavanagh, D. (1999). ‘The Third Age of Communication: influences
and features’. Political Communication, 16/3: 209-230
Brady,H and Johnston,R (2006). Capturing campaign effects. Michigan: University of Michigan Press.
Bright, J, Nahema M, Bharath G, and Rudinavac, S. (2021). How Do Individuals in a Radical Echo Chamber React to Opposing Views? Evidence from a Content Analysis of Stormfront. Human Communication Research 48(1):1–31.
Bösch, M., & Ricks, B. (2021). Broken promises: Tik‐Tok and the German election. Mozilla Foundation. https://assets.mofoprod.net/network/documents/TikTok_and_the_German_Election.pdf
Cervi, L. (2021). TikTok and Generation Z. Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, 12(2):198–204. https://doi.org/10.1080/19443927.2021.1915617
Cervi, L., & Marín‐Lladó, C. (2021). What are political parties doing on TikTok? The Spanish case. Profesional de la Información, 30(4), Article e300403. https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2021.jul.03
Cervi, L., & Marín‐Lladó, C. (2022). Free palestine onTikTok: From performative activism to (meaningful)playful activism. Journal of International and Inter‐cultural Communication 15(4):414–434. https://doi.org/10.1080/17513057.2022.2131883
Channels Television (2022). [FULL SPEECH] 'Emilokan', Without Me, Buhari Wouldn’t Have Become President – Tinubu. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GAh_3H_y_A&t=73s
Cheeseman, N. (2010). African elections as vehicles for change. Journal of Democracy, 21(4), 139–153. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2010.0019
Chong, D. & Druckman, J. N. (2007). A theory of framing and opinion formation in competitive elite environments. Journal of Communication, 57,. 99-118.
D’Angelo, P., Lule, J., Neuman, W. R., Rodriguez, L., Dimitrova, D. V., & Carragee, K. M. (2019). Beyond Framing: A Forum for Framing Researchers. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 96(1), 12-30. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699018825004
Dubois, E and Grant B. (2018). The echo chamber is overstated: the moderating effect of political interest and diverse media. Information, Communication & Society 21(5):729–745.
Dylko I. B., Beam M. A., Landreville K. D., Geidner N. (2011). Filtering 2008 U.S. presidential election news on YouTube by elites and nonelites: An examination of the democratizing potential of the Internet. New Media & Society 14(5):832–849. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444811428899
Entman, Robert M. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43(4). 51–58.
Fadoju, R.O (2022 , 22 August). 2023:Tinubu’s ‘Emi Lokan’ Campaign Banner Destroyed In Lagos. Naijanews.com https://www.naijanews.com/2022/08/17/2023-tinubus-emi-lokan-campaign-banner-destroyed-in-lagos/
Forrest, J and Marks, G.N. (1999). The Mass Media, Election campaigning and voter response, the Australian Experience. Party politics, 5(1):99-114.
Fujiwara, T, Müller, K, and Schwarz, C. (2023). The Effect of Social Media on Elections: Evidence from The United States, Journal of the European Economic Association, jvad058, https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvad058
Gbadegesin, V. and Onanuga, P. (2018). ‘A Multimodal Interaction Analysis of Selected 2015 Nigerian Election Campaign Adverts’, Communicatio, 44(2), pp. 41–66. doi: 10.1080/02500167.2018.1464042.
Geise, S., Heck, A. and Panke, D. (2023). “Shiny Happy People Laughing”: The Protest Paradigm, WUNC, and the Visual Framing of Political Activism’, Visual Communication Quarterly 30(2):90–105. doi: 10.1080/15551393.2023.2196631.
Gentzkow, M and Shapiro, J.M. (2011). Ideological Segregation Online and Offline. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 126(4):1799–1839.
Gerpott F. H., Lehmann-Willenbrock N., Silvis J. D., Van Vugt M. (2018). “In the Eye of the Beholder? An Eye-Tracking Experiment on Emergent Leadership in Team Interactions.” The Leadership Quarterly ,29 (4): 523–32.
Hawthorn, J. (1987). Propaganda, persuasion and polemic. London: Arnold.
Igartua, J. J., & Cheng, L. (2009). Moderating effect of group cue while processing news on
immigration. Is the framing effect a heuristic process? Journal of Communication, 59(4),
–749.
Kress, G. & van Leeuwen,T. (1996). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. London: Routledge.
Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading images: The grammar of visual design, 2nd edn. London: Taylor & Francis.
Koter, D. (2017). Costly electoral campaigns and the changing composition and quality of parliament: Evidence from Benin. African Affairs, 116(465), 573–596. https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adx022
Ledin, P and Machin, D. (2020). Introduction to Multimodal Analysis. 2nd edn, London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Litvinenko, A. (2021). YouTube as Alternative Television in Russia: Political Videos During the Presidential Election Campaign 2018. Social Media + Society, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120984455
Liu, X., Qi, L., Wang, L., & Metzger, M. J. (2023). Checking the Fact-Checkers: The Role of Source Type, Perceived Credibility, and Individual Differences in Fact-Checking Effectiveness. Communication Research 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502231206419
Ludwig, K. and Müller, P. (2022). Does Social Media Use Promote Political Mass Polarization. In: Questions of Communicative Change and Continuity. In: Memory of Wolfram Peiser, eds. Benjamin Krämer and Philipp Müller, 118–166. Baden-Baden: Nomos.
Machin, (D. 2013). What is multimodal critical discourse studies? Critical Discourse Studies 10(4). 347–355. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2013.813770.
Mazur A. (2005). Biosociology of Dominance and Deference. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Meeks, L. (2020). Defining the Enemy: How Donald Trump Frames the News Media. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 97(1):211-234. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699019857676
Murthy, D., & Sharma, S. (2019). Visualizing YouTube’s comment space: online hostility as a networked phenomena. New Media & Society 21(1):191-213. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818792393
Myers-Scotton, C. (1993). Elite closure as a powerful language strategy: The African case. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 103(1). doi:10.1515/ijsl.1993.103.149
Nwachukwu, P. C. (2023). The Influence of Political Advertising on the Voting Patterns of Rural Residents in Electoral Processes: A Study on the Role of Radio Campaigns. Path of Science, 9(8), 5001-5008. https://doi.org/10.22178/pos.95-2
Nwagwu, E. J., Uwaechia, O. G., Udegbunam, K. C., & Nnamani, R. (2022). Vote Buying During 2015 And 2019 General Elections: Manifestation and Implications on Democratic Development in Nigeria. Cogent Social Sciences, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2021
Nwagwu, E. J. et al. (2022). ‘Vote Buying During 2015 And 2019 General Elections: Manifestation and Implications on Democratic Development in Nigeria’, Cogent Social Sciences, 8(1). doi: 10.1080/23311886.2021.1995237.
Nwagwu, E. J., Uwaechia, O. G., Udegbunam, K. C., & Nnamani, R. (2022). Vote Buying During 2015 And 2019 General Elections: Manifestation and Implications on Democratic Development in Nigeria. Cogent Social Sciences, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2021.1995237
Okolie, A.-M. et al. (2021) ‘Campaign propaganda, electoral outcome and the dynamics of governance in the post-2015 presidential election in Nigeria’, Cogent Social Sciences, 7(1). doi: 10.1080/23311886.2021.1922180.
Olaniran B, Williams I. (2020). Social Media Effects: Hijacking Democracy and Civility in Civic Engagement. Platforms, Protests, and the Challenge of Networked Democracy. 27:77–94. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-36525-7_5. PMCID: PMC7343248
Oversteegen, L., & van Wijk, C. (2003). Lexical alternation versus word repetition: The effects of synonyms on reading time, text-appreciation, and persuasiveness. Document Design, 4(2), 150-16.
Owen, D. (2017).'New Media and Political Campaigns', in Kate Kenski, and Kathleen Hall Jamieson (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication, Oxford Handbooks (2017; online edn, Oxford Academic, 11 Jan. 2018), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199793471.013.016_update_001, accessed 23 May 2024
Paatelainen, L Kannasto, E and Isotalus, P (2022). Functions of Hybrid Media: How Parties and Their Leaders Use Traditional Media in Their Social Media Campaign Communication. Frontiers in Communication,6 1-9.
Pfau, M., Haigh, M., Fifrick, A., Holl, D., Tedesco, A., Cope, J., Nunnally, D., Schiess, A., Preston, D., Roszkowski, P., & Martin, M. (2006). The Effects of Print News Photographs of the Casualties of War. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 83(1), 150-168. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769900608300110
Plus Media TV (2022). TINUBU REVEALS WHY HE SAID "EMI LOKAN" IN MKO ABIOLA HOME TOWN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6N51Uk2ySY
Rodriguez, L and Dimitrova, D. (2011). The levels of visual framing, Journal of Visual Literacy 30(1): 48-65.DOI: 10.1080/23796529.2011.11674684
Rodríguez-Ferrándiz, R (2023). An overview of the fake news phenomenon: from untruth-driven to post-truth driven approaches. Media and Communication ,11(2),15-29.
Rosepetergraham (2023). Dino Melaye Mimics Tinubu in Emi'lokan Remix.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2Sa4JgYd0k&pp=ygUJZW1pIGxva2Fu
Scheufele, D. (1999). Framing as a theory of media effects. Journal of Communication, 49(1), 103–122.
Spivak R. (2019). “Deepfakes”: The newest way to commit one of the oldest crimes. The Georgetown Law Technology Review, 3(2) 339–400. https://perma.cc/y32v-y4x9
Stewart P. A., Eubanks A. D., Miller J. (2019). “Visual Priming and Framing of the 2016 GOP and Democratic Party Presidential Primary Debates.” Politics and the Life Sciences, 38 (1): 14–31.
Tarr, A., Hwang, J. and Imai, K. (2023). ‘Automated Coding of Political Campaign Advertisement Videos: An Empirical Validation Study’, Political Analysis, 31(4), pp. 554–574. doi:10.1017/pan.2022.26..1995237
Thorson K., Driscoll K., Ekdale B., Edgerly S., Thompson L. G., Schrock A., Wells C. (2013). YouTube, Twitter and the Occupy movement. Information, Communication & Society, 16(3), 421–451. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2012.756051
Valkenburg, P. M., Semetko, H. A., & de Vreese, C. H. (1999). The effects of news frames on readers’ thoughts and recall. Communication Research, 26(5), 550–569.
Van Dijk, T.A. (1998). Ideology: A multidisciplinary approach. London: Sage.
Wasike,B (2023). You’ve been fact-checked! Examining the effectiveness of social media fact- checking against the spread of misinformation. Telematics and Informatics Reports, 11(1-7).
Zhang, H. and Wei, Y. (2024). Visual frames in promotional video: a semiotic analysis of What is Peppa?. Semiotica, 2024 (257) 177-201. https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2022-0006
Zurovac, E. (2022). Le Arti della Politica. Il volto e il voto: Prove di posizionamento politico su TikTok fra per‐formance e riflessività connessa [The art of politics.The face and the vote: Evidence of political position‐ing on TikTok between performance and connectedreflexivity]. Comunicazione Politica, 23(3):485–488. https://doi.org/10.3270/105438
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Patrick Agbedejobi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).