A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF SELECTED POLITICAL CAMPAIGN ADVERTISEMENTS IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA IN THE 2019 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

In order to win the hearts of the electorate, politicians and indeed, political parties engage in some ideologically discursive practices in their campaign advertisements and speeches. Usually, these discourse events are surreptitiously embedded in their adverts that many viewers hardly detect. This study examines how much these discursive events are employed in the political campaign adverts, particularly those aired on television. Eight campaign adverts aired on television each for the All Progressive Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) were collected and subjected to critical discourse analysis. The study shows and indeed concludes that the producers of the advertisements employed various techniques, such as symbolism, accusation, common sense, ideological enactment and marketization as well as implicitness and explicitness not only to woo voters but also to enact their ideology and hegemony.