Citizenship, participation, and CMD

NaijaPals and Nolitics, respectively a hosting site and a discussion forum by and for Nigerians, provide an opportunity for the citizens’ social and political participation. As a hosting website with social networking and blogging activities, NaijaPals maintains an online community, with Nolitics as a discussion forum solely dedicated to social and political debate. Members exchange information and engage in critical analysis of Nigeria’s political system. A total of 104 ‘posts’ are analyzed in the framework of Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis (CMDA) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The analysis highlights the roles of political discourse in Nolitics, mainly as social critique, with the aim of shaping political leadership and involving the citizens in political governance. Discourse in this context is viewed as discursive practice, in the form of political propaganda; anti-corruption campaigns; socio-political mobilization; and recommendations for growth — all of these mediated in written texts. The analyses also show that metaphors, directive speech acts and questioning are used as discursive strategies.