Radicalist discourse: a study of the stances of Nigeria's Boko Haram and Somalia's Al Shabaab on Twitter
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This study examines the features of stance in tweets downloaded from the English
Twitter accounts of Boko Haram and Al Shabaab, referred to as ‘radicalist discourse’.
Stance, referred to as ‘positioning’ or point of views of tweeters, is defined in terms of
features such as hedges, boosters, attitude markers, self-mention and threats. These
express commitment, attitude and judgement of writers on the issues being discussed.
Applying mostly qualitative analysis, the study shows that self-mention and attitude
markers are the most prevalent features of stance in radicalist discourse. Thus, stance
is used to express triumph, satisfaction, anger and hate by the radical groups under
study. The various expressions of attitude and self-mention in the data portray positive
construction of in-group and negative evaluation of others (i.e. governments and
institutions) referred to as infidels and apostates.
Keywords
HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform, PE English