Weaponizing Political Rhetoric to Galvanize Voters’ Support on the Twitterscape

Abstract

An in-depth review of political narratives on social media demonstrates how social networking sites (SNSs) such as Twitter are strategically used by politi-cal parties and actors to galvanize the masses behind their political election- eering campaigns (see Faris, 2013). Hence, the rise of digital communication technologies in recent times has generated critical discourse bordering on issues of political participation that are central to democracy (Wilhelm, 2000; Wright, 2016). The internet has transformed many methods of contemporary political communication, and their impact has been viewed as significant in alter-ing the crucial relationship between political parties, actors, and ordinary citizens (Margetts, 2006). In Africa, prominent political parties such as the African National Congress (ANC), Democratic Alliance (DA), and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in South Africa, as well as the All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Labour Party (LP) in Nigeria, also use digital platforms as part of their political rhetoric to galva-nize support from voters for their electioneering campaigns. This study employed "digital rhetorics" as the theoretical framework to analyze how political parties employ Twitter in electioneering campaigns.