Contextual Persuasion Strategies in Presidential Election Campaign Advertisements in Selected Nigerian Newspapers

Abstract

Presidential election campaign advertisers in Nigerian newspapers combine predictable contextual knowledge and routes of persuasion as strategies in producing messages aimed at influencing voters’ decisions before an election. Existing studies on presidential election campaign advertisements in Nigerian newspapers have focused mainly on persuasive effects from the stylistic, critical discourse analytic, semiotic, and satirical perspectives. However, little attention was paid to predictable contexts and routes of persuasion as strategies in creating desired effects in presidential campaign advertisements. This study, therefore, was designed to identify and analyse predictable context types and persuasive strategies used in election campaign advertisements in selected Nigerian newspapers. M.A.K. Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (1978), complemented by Petty and Cacioppo’s Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), served as the framework. Descriptive design was adopted. Data were collected from All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential campaign advertisements in three Nigerian newspapers: Daily Trust (DT), Punch, and Nigerian Tribune (NT). Seven out of fifty campaign advertisements published in 2015 and 2019 were purposively selected based on their wide circulation. Data were subjected to discourse analysis. Three predictable context types were identified: Victory (PCV), Defeat (PCD) and Countering of Opponent’s Strategies (PCCOS). These predictable contexts were combined with central and peripheral routes of persuasion. Context of victory depicted Peripheral Route of Persuasion (PRP); context of defeat exhibited Central Route of Persuasion (CRP) (Punch and NT), while PCCOS (NT and Punch) reflected integrated use of PRP and CRP. Presidential campaign advertisers in Nigerian newspapers combine predictable contexts and routes of persuasion to consolidate voters’ support, prevent likely defeat and counter opponents’ strategies preparatory to winning an election.