Online Flaming: An Analysis of the Semiotic Elements in Senator Dino Melaye's videos to his perceived Opponents in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper explores elements of flaming in three videos of Senator Dino Melaye (SDM) to his perceived opponents in Nigeria. The study sees semiotic elements in the videos as argumentative tools meant to draw the imaginary audience into his line of reasoning. Applying concepts from multimodality by Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996), and the persuasive theory by Demirdöğen (2010), the study looks at the verbal and the kinesthetic of the videos and how they jointly cast the targets of the videos in a negative light. The aim of the study is to examine how the verbal complements the kinesthetic in casting the targets of the videos in a negative light. The objectives of the study are: to find out the persuasive techniques, mannerisms deployed in SDM’s videos to cast the targets in a negative light; to establish how the verbal complements the kinesthetic in casting targets of the videos in a negative light. The justification for the study derives from the belief that meanings projected in the speeches of public figures especially those posted online can easily be taken as the ideal. The videos were downloaded from YouTube and transcribed. Some parts of the verbal aspects which were in the Yoruba language were transliteration into English. Snapshots of the kinesthetic were taken and analysed alongside the verbal. The study found that the eye contact with the imaginary audience, his aggressive body movement helped him to establish ethos—positioning him as being capable of carrying out all the threats in the video; the verbal complements the kinesthetic in a synchronized way, in that the kinesthetic matched each word he said reinforcing the threads and aspersions in the video; there are similar body movement in all the videos, like gesticulating with his hands, dancing to the tune of the song he composed and engaging in acts as if physically fighting with his opponent. The study recommends that, utterances which have the propensity to demean its target especially of public figures should be free of derogatory and abusive items.