Research Goals
Examined the dynamics of music, social media, and politics. Considered music as a tool
to convey political messages and argues that political parties use music to spread positive narratives of
their accomplishments to promote themselves and their flag-bearers while using negative narratives to
vilify and attempt to delegitimize their opponents.
Research Focus
- Evaluate the elements of political confrontation relayed through Change Blues and The Truth Blues, both viral political satires.
- Consider the strategies used in these two as attempts to sway public opinion.
- Explore public relations strategies for impression management from political perspectives.
Methodology
Adopted Framing analysis and discourse analysis to examine the song lyrics.
- Phase 1: Conduct social media analysis related to the songs.
- Phase 2: Scraped user perception content.
- Phase 3: Examined and categorized themes (Grounded theory approach).
- Phase 4: Data analysis, reporting and recommendation.
Comparative Analysis
- Exploration and deep dive was conducted between the two songs and audience social media engagement.
Findings
- Strong emphasis on corruption in Nigeria and ways in which the political parties attempted
- Lyrics, visuals mirror the reality of the common man, but engagement strategies are different.
- Songs were used to encourage political participation and for political party image management.
Significance
- Music is used to initiate social immediacy and increase audience engagement.
Next Step
- Consider a longitudinal image management strategies using music to encourage political participation.
Keywords
Public relations, social participation, audience engagement, social media, image branding.
Ngozi Akinro 