Dr. Aondover Eric Msughter

Internet Meme as a Campaign Tool to the Fight against Covid-19 in Nigeria

The outbreak of Coronavirus known as Covid-19 witnessed a digitalized era of unprecedented campaigns in Nigeria. Citizens engaged in using social media during the period to sensitize people and to call on the government to help prevent the spread of the virus. Facebook appears to be among the platform tremendously used by Nigerian to create awareness on Covid-19 in the country. People used social media platforms globally to respond to the threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic. Within this context, the paper discusses the application and implication of internet memes as a campaign tool for the fight against Covid-19 in Nigeria. The paper examines internet memes as a unique form of narratives to help avert the wide spread of the virus. The study captures and highlights the usage of photograph memes on Covid-19. The paper employs semiotic and qualitative content analysis methods. The paper anchors on the theoretical lens of the visual rhetoric of multi-participant popular online content. Internet memes on Covid-19 explore issues that contain visual metaphors aimed at establishing what Nigerians are passing through as well as stimulating government participation. Social media usage in connection with the pandemic in Nigeria is by creation, uploading, and sharing of internet memes on Covid-19. The paper articulates that internet memes served as an avenue for direct communication, which apparently contributes to creating awareness on Covid-19 to the general public.