Covid-19 #Takeresponsibility: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Select NCDC’s Online Public Health Advertising Campaign

Adetutu Aragbuwa; Victor O. Adejumo

doi:10.24071/joll.v21i2.3044

Covid-19 #Takeresponsibility: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Select NCDC’s Online Public Health Advertising Campaign

Adetutu Aragbuwa^(1*), Victor O. Adejumo⁽²⁾,

(1) Ekiti State University
(2) Ekiti State University
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract

This article examines the Nigerian Center for Disease Control’s (henceforth, NCDC) Covid-19 #TakeResponsibility online public health advertising campaign. This is with a view to exploring how the representational, interactive and compositional resources are realized in these advertising visuals as well as their communicative functions. Forty purposively selected data samples, which were subjected to qualitative analysis, are examined from a multimodal discourse analytical approach. The analysis reveals that the narrative, transactive, action, offer, and the frontal resources, among others, are realized in the adverts. These resources interactively perform the directive, informative, reinforcing, preventive, cautionary and collective functions. Thus, the representational, interactive and compositional resources deployed in the NCDC’s Covid-19 #TakeResponsibility online visuals discursively cohere as multimodal public health campaign strategies geared towards sensitizing the Nigerian populace on the safety guidelines to adhere to in containing the spread of Covid-19 in Nigeria.

Keywords

Covid-19 #TakeResponsibility; Nigerian Center for Disease Control; public health advertising campaign; multimodal discourse analysis

Full Text:

PDF

References

Adepoju, P. (2020). Nigeria Responds to COVID-19; First Case Detected in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nature Medicine, 26, pp. 444-448.

Asif, M., Zhiyong, D., Iram, A., & Nisar, M. (2020). Linguistic Analysis of Neologism Related to Coronavirus (COVID-19). Retrieved from https://ssrn.com/abstract=3608585.

Ahmad, S., Hafeez, A., Siddqui, S. A., Ahmad, M., & Mishra, S. (2020). A Review of COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease-2019) Diagnosis, Treatments and Prevention. EJMO, 4(2), pp. 116–125.

Anjorin, A. A. (2020). The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic: A Review and an Update on Cases in Africa. Asian Pac J Trop Med, 13(5), pp. 199-203.

Brookes, G., & Harvey, K. (2015). Peddling a Semiotics of Fear: A Critical Examination of Scare Tactics and Commercial Strategies in Public Health Promotion. Social Semiotics, 25(1), pp. 57-80.

Bok, S. H. (2008). A Multimodal Analysis of Selected National LoveLife HIV/AIDS Prevention Campaign Texts. MA Department of Linguistics, University of the Western Cape.

CDC (2020). CDC in Action: Working 24/7 to Stop the Threat of COVID-19. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/budget/documents/covid-19/CDC-247-Response-to-COVID-19-fact-sheet.pdf

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Alert HIGHLIGHTS FROM @NCDCgov. Retrieved from https://unizik.edu.ng/covid19/

Dias, L. S., & Gusso, A. M. (2016). “Do You need to Know the Person to Donate?” Facework Strategies in Brazilian Blood Donation Campaigns: A Multimodal Analysis. Linguagem em (Dis)curso – LemD, Tubarão, SC, 16(3), pp. 401-419.

El-Dali, H. M. (2019). The Language of Consumer Advertising: Linguistic and Psychological Perspectives. Studies in Linguistics and Literature 3(2). Retrieved from www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/sll.

Fehr, A. R., & Perlman, S. (2015). Coronaviruses: An Overview of their Replication and Pathogenesis. Methods Mol Biol., 1282, pp. 1–23.

Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (2020). Niger Delta Covid-19 Updates. Retrieved from https://pindfoundation.org/niger-delta-covid19-updates/

Guo, Y., & Li, R. (2020). Visual Grammar in Practice: Analyzing Discourses with Words and Images of Covid-19 Pandemic in China. International Journal of Social Science and Education Research, 3(9), pp. 10-18.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as social semiotic. London: Edward Arnold.

Health Development Agency (2004). The Effectiveness of Public Health Campaigns. HDA BRIEFING 7. Retrieved from https://www.emcdda.europa.eu.

Iqbal, Z., Aslam, M. Z., Aslam, T., Ashraf, R., Kashif, M., & Nasir, H. (2020) Persuasive Power Concerning COVID-19 Employed by Premier Imran Khan: A Socio-political Discourse Analysis. Register Journal, 13(1), pp. 208-230.

Jegede, D. (2020). Perception of Undergraduate Students on the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Higher Institutions Development in Federal Capital Territory Abuja, Nigeria. Electronic Research Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2(II), pp. 211-222.

Kahari, L. (2013). A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Selected Male Circumcision Posters used in Zimbabwe. Global Journal of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, 1(4), pp. 61-71.

Khadohi, B. I., & Odhiambo, K. (2020). Interactive Multimodal Metadiscourse in COVID-19 Campaign Posters by Ministry of Health, Kenya. International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 5(5), pp. 1592-1601.

Kim Hua, T., Woods, P., Azman, H., Abdullah, I. H., Hashim, R. S., Rahim, H. A., Idrus, M. M., Said, N. E. M., Lew, R., & Kosem, I. (2020). Covid-19 Insights and Linguistic Methods. 3L: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 26(2), pp. 1-23.

Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.

Lawal, S. A., & Amzat, J. (2020). Rapid Public Health Enlightenment (RPHE) to Curb the Continued Spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria. UCL Medical Anthropology. Retrieved from https://medanthucl.com/2020/04/25/rapid-public-health-enlightenment-rphe-to-curb-the-continued-spread-of-covid-19-in-nigeria/.

Liu, S. (2019). A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of the Interactive Meaning in Public Service Advertisement. Journal of Advances in Linguistics, 10, pp. 1523-1534.

Mulderrig, J. (2017). Multimodal Strategies of Emotional Governance: A Critical Analysis of ‘nudge’ Tactics in Health Policy. Critical Discourse Studies, 15(1), pp. 39-67.

Nasambu, B. M., Khasanda, V. I., & Nyandoro, G. (2020). A Discursive Analysis of the Interactive Meaning in Covid-19 Containment Discourses in Social Media: Perspectives on Family Relationships. International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS), 5(4). Retrieved from http://journal-repository.com/index.php/ijels/article/view/2318.

National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (2020). The Heart Truth. Retrieved from https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/education-and-awareness/heart-truth

NCDC (2019). Nigeria Centre for Disease Control: Progress in Last Two Years. Retrieved from https://ianphi.org/_includes/documents/sections/tools-resources/annual meetings/2019annualmeeting/ncdc-progress.pdf

NCDC (2020). Case Definitions for Coronavirus Disease. Retrieved from https://covid19.ncdc.gov.ng/media/files/Case_Definition.pdf

NCDC on Twitter (2020). #TakeResponsibility. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/ncdcgov/status/1233763749191995393 and https://twitter.com/ncdcgov/status/1266671260093702145

Obiorah, K. (2020) Pronunciation Fall-out of Coronavirus (COVID 19) Pandemic in Nigeria. Retrieved from https://pesquisa.bvsalud.org/global-literature-on-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov/resource/en/ppcovidwho-1303.

Osahon, I. R., & Memudu, A. E. (2020). Perception and Healthy Attitudes of Nigerians to Covid-19. Acta Scientific Medical Sciences, 4(6), pp. 18-19.

Out, A., Ameh, S., Osifo-Dawodu, E., Alade, E., Ekuri, S., & Idris, J. (2017). An account of the Ebola virus disease outbreak in Nigeria: Implications and lessons learnt. BMC public health, 18(1), 3. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4535-x

Oyebode, O., & Unuabonah, F. O. (2013). Coping with HIV/AIDS: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Selected HIV/AIDs Posters in South-western Nigeria. Discourse and Society, 24(6), pp. 810-827.

Sabihah, M., & Christo, P. C. (2019). A Multimodal Semiotic Analysis of Social Factors in Tuberculosis Campaigns in South Africa, the United Kingdom and India, Communicatio, 45(2), pp. 81-98.

Shereen, M. A., Khan, S., Kazmi, A., Bashir, N., & Siddique, R. (2020). COVID-19 Infection: Origin, Transmission, and Characteristics of Human Coronaviruses. Journal of Advanced Research, 24, pp. 91–98.

WHO/UNAIDS (2007). New Data on Male circumcision and HIV Prevention: Policy and Programme Implications: Conclusions and Recommendations. Geneva: UNAIDS.

WHO (2020). Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report – 94. Retrieved from https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/331865

World Health Organisation. Module 13-Effective Public Health Campaigns. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/documents/social-determinants-of-health/hiap-module-13---public-health-campaigns.pdf?sfvrsn=3a6facf5_2

WHO (2020). Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) Situation. Retrieved from https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/685d0ace521648f8a5beeeee1b9125cd.

WHO (2020). Coronavirus. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/healthtopics/coronavirus.

Xu, Q. X., Ren, R., Wang, Y., Guo, Y., Fang, J., Wu, Z., Liu, P., & Han, T. (2020) Fighting against the Common Enemy of COVID-19: A Practice of Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind. Infectious Diseases of Poverty, 9(34), pp. 1-6.

Yusuf, A., Gusau, H. A., & Maiyaki, F. U. (2020). COVID-19 Guidelines: A Multimodal Video Analysis of Student Behavioral Compliance during Senior Secondary Certificate Examination. Retrieved from https://ssrn.com/abstract=3695703

Zhao, M., Lyu, Z., Cheng, Q., & Huang, R. (2020). Tobacco Control Intervention: A Comparative Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Video Advertisements in China and Australia. Journal of Literature and Art Studies, 10(4), pp. 313-320.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/joll.v21i2.3044