AESTHETIC ANALYSIS OF UNFAIR TRIAL AS EMOTIONAL PROPAGANDA APPEAL IN NIGERIA’S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN (Published)
Disinformation in image projection seeks to achieve irrational protest consideration in message consumers of political commercials. It explains why a candidate’s image is subjected to emotional evaluation by the electorate, in an election situation. The Unfair Trial advertisement, used to separate Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP from Muhammadu Buhari of the APC, in 2015 presidential election in Nigeria, was the basis of this aesthetic analysis. Four aesthetic appreicational factors of environment, language, costume and action were used to determine how presented pictures, text and sound were expected to affect the television commercial consumers’ psyche. It is believed that emotion, introduced in political arguments, was likely to influence voter behaviour against incivility, capable of translating into loss of voter support for the disparaged candidate. It means that image projection of candidates at election should be done with dexterity, as to achieve the desired communication objective in political commercials. It is when arguments are elevated to rational discourse that emotional considerations become inconsequential in adverse contemplation for any particular candidate at elections.
Keywords: Aesthetics, Emotion, Propaganda, appeal.
READING YOUTH-: VIOLENCE AND IDEOLOGICAL PROPAGANDA IN SELECTED SOUTHERN NIGERIAN PLAYS (Published)
The media’s capacity to manipulate information and create stereotypes can negatively affect young audiences who emulate its aggressive behavioral models. The rate of violence and aggression among Niger Delta youths, who form the core of the militant resistance in the area, can be attributed to the influence of socio-cultural factors of corruption, cultural ideologies and narrative myths created by the media. This essay examines the manner certain plays written by Southern Nigerian playwrights serve as media extensions by acting as if they are creative depictions of the marginalized Delta youth’s social reality while in actuality these works mediate personal objectives that further engender youth violence. The work analyzes the generative ability of the narrative as an action creating new identities and stereotypes. Youth violence, while being anti-social in nature, appears justified in the reference plays which have psychotic young heroes that glamorize violent agitation as an existentialist strategy. The essay surmises that propagandist literature can become operational when the author deliberately gives prominence to certain details while relegating other necessary facts that shape perception and identity
Keywords: Militancy, Niger-Delta, Priming, Propaganda, Violence, Youth