MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF SELECTED POLITICAL CAMPAIGN POSTERS AND SLOGANS IN PORT HARCOURT, RIVERS STATE

Abstract

Posters are very important forms of visual communication that commercial and political advertisers use to persuade target audience. During election campaign periods all over the world, posters are used to familiarize candidates to the electorates and entice them to vote for candidates. Multimodal Discourse Analysis has been adopted by different researchers to study such issues as the significance of campaign posters to the outcome of election processes. This study analyses selected campaign posters in Port Harcourt Metropolis of Rivers State of Nigeria. Crystal and Davy’s Linguistic stylistic model of analysis was used as method of analysis. Three (3) political posters were purposively selected and analysed using the analytical tools of Multimodal Discourse Analysis and Crystal and Davy’s Linguistic stylistic model. The study concluded that political campaign posters carry inscriptions that are mostly ambiguous since they are open to more than one interpretation. They are personal, idiosyncratic and subjective as they vary in their consideration by the audience. This study contributed to knowledge theoretically, in the sense that the use of Multimodal Discourse Analysis reveals that meanings can be conveyed to the electorate through other semiotic modes such as images, texts, symbols and designs; and practically, it reveals that there is a connection between real life and elements in an imaginative work of art, and this goes a long way in influencing the decisions people make.