A Semiological Study of Internet Memes of Men Dance Competition on Tiv Popular Culture in Benue State, Nigeria
Mainasara Yakubu Kurfi
Aondover Eric Msughter
Abstract
The main preoccupation of the social media is the creation and production of symbolic messages which are transmitted to the public for the purpose of fulfilling certain functions to the society in general as well as individuals within the society. Therefore, popular music has been known to perform some journalistic roles in Nigeria and to reach audiences that the conventional media have not had the opportunity of reaching. Drawing from this perspective, the study analyse contextual background of internet memes of men dance competition in Benue State. It also study formal description of the internet memes of men dance competition and examine iconographic of the internet memes of men dance competition in the state. The study espouses on the Cultural Populism Theory and Visual Rhetoric Theory. The study adopts Semiotic Analysis (SA) and Text and Textual Analysis (TTA). The population for this study comprises 21 social media that shared pictures of men dance competition in the state. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter constitute the sample size of the study. Five pictures are analysed for this study, however, three pictures are presented in this report, for depth qualitative analysis. The study employs purposive sampling technique in the selection of the social media and pictures for analysis. The study discovered that visual imageries are used symbolically on social media to show the weakness of men in dance competition in Benue State. The findings of the study also revealed that the role of men in cultural promotion on the Tiv popular culture in the state is significantly high. The study concludes that men in the state dance very well and have a unique form of advancing Tiv popular culture.