A Discursive Analysis of the Interactive Meaning in Covid-19 Containment Discourses in Social Media: Perspectives on Family Relationships

Abstract

Nowadays social media has penetrated into people’s daily life playing an important role. Whether through tools such as computers, mobile phones, or other network terminals, social media has become one of the indispensable elements of human society. With information technology rapidly increasing, visual languages become more important in social media. The various semiotic resources such as language, image, better convey the message. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) within the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) as its theoretical bases, this study sought to provide insight into the perspective of family relationships as represented in social media in Kenya during the Covid 19 Containment interventions. Specifically, the paper sought to analyse the interactive meaning constructed in linguistic mode, analyse how the interactive meaning facilitated in visual mode and lastly how the linguistic and visual modes combined to construct the interactive meaning. Using theoretical sampling, twenty-eight (28) texts were sampled from the internet and whatsup groups then described, analysed and explained within the CDA and MDA approaches with a view to identify the perspectives on family relationships as expressed in the Covid 19 social media discourses. The findings revealed the following family issues, poverty, strained couple relationships, domestic violence, spouse cheating, spousal mobile phone snooping, constrained family finances, challenges of parenting, couple dominance and power struggle, family unity and issues to do with conjugal right and child bearing.