Research Symposium

BIO

Hello, my name is Oluwatomi Onikeku! I am a second-year Junior here at Florida State University. I am majoring in Human development and family sciences on the Pre-PA track in hopes of becoming an Obstetric Physician's assistant. In the future, I am hoping to take strides to ease health inequities for mothers in minority groups. I am Nigerian, but I was born in Massachusetts. I currently live in Tampa, Florida where I have resided for the past 7 years.

Domestic Violence Discourse As Political And Civic Engagement: A Textual Analysis Of Comments On Social Media

Abstract

Domestic violence continues to be an issue around the globe, particularly in Africa; this research study works to analyze the role of online discourse as a form of political and civic engagement when talking about topics such as domestic violence. Social media platforms encourage the mass sharing of ideas, views, and opinions that may influence behavioral changes on a societal level. This study explores the factors that make online discourse an effective medium by analyzing language use. Using NVivo software, reactions and actions in these comments are coded by highlighting the use of adjectives and verbs, respectively. Qualitative discourse analysis allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of language use in particular contexts on social issues, which in the case of our study is domestic violence. Given how recent this form of data collection is in analyzing language use in domestic violence discourse, grounded theory is adopted to give way for themes to emerge naturally from the discourse. We gathered data from the comment sections of thirteen discussion threads on a Nigerian news and information blog on Instagram, Instablog9ja. Two thousand of these comments were cleaned, collated, and eventually analyzed to understand how these comment sections serve the purpose of being a space for dialogue and their potential as catalysts for cultural and religious reforms. 

Keywords: Qualitative Discourse analysis, Domestic Violence