Discourse, digitisation and women’s rights groups in Nigeria and Ghana: Online campaigns for political inclusion and against violence on women and girls

Abstract

This study examines aspects of online activism by women’s rights groups in Nigeria and Ghana, especially by exploring their online campaign approaches. Applying the new social movement theories and methods in linguistic pragmatics and discourse analysis, the study examines and analyses how gender issues such as political participation and violence against women and girls are mediated discursively. The study further assesses the roles of social media in the campaign programmes of the women’s rights groups. Two groups each from Nigeria and Ghana are selected for the study. These are among the most active ones in the two countries with an efficient online presence. Findings show that the women movements adopt discourse-pragmatic acting strategies such as reporting, directing, demanding and identifying with women’s rights to seek redress to perceived gender injustice.