Journal of Media Studies, Vol 34, No 2 (2019)

Font Size:  Small  Medium  Large

Superimposition of Metanarrative through Counter Narrative in Political Tweets of Maryam Nawaz

Faiqa Rashid, Muhammad Shaban Rafi

Abstract


This study aims at investigating superimposition of metanarrative by counter narratives in the political tweets of Maryam Nawaz. The data was confined to the tweets of Maryam Nawaz over the period of two months (February and March 2018). The thematic framework of Riessman et.al (2008) was used as a theoretical lens to interpret the data. The study reveals that Maryam Nawaz is inclined to develop counter narratives in her communication through Tweets. These narratives eclipse the often claimed, propagated and manipulated metanarrative (declared in the party Manifesto) in the pursuit of her personal interests. The study shows that the counter narratives are perpetuated against rival parties, institutions and sometimes against the party Manifesto to generate conflict and to instigate the followers for protests. The study also reveals that metanarrative of the party was not communicated by Maryam Nawaz even during significant political events. Not speaking of the party manifesto/metanarrative, she has been using the virtual space interaction to counter attack her rival political parties. This study provides a direction to future studies to investigate the role of social media in helping Pakistani politicians for getting their voice out to a larger community mostly a direct appeal to their voters for information, persuasion and mobilization.

References


Ahmad, N., & Popa, I. (2014). The social media usage and the transformation of political marketing and campaigning of the emerging democracy in Indonesia. In B. Pa˘trut& M. Pa˘trut. (Eds.), Social Media in Politics: Case Studies on the Political Power of Social Media (pp. 97-125). London: Springer.Ali, Z., Jan, M., &Iqbal, A. (2013). Social media implication on politics of Pakistan; measuring the impact of Facebook. The International Asian Research Journal, 1(1), 13-21.Barisione, M., & Michailidou, A. (Eds.). (2017). Social media and European politics: Rethinking power and legitimacy in the digital era. Springer.Borah, P. (2014). Facebook use in the 2012 USA presidential campaign. In B. Pa˘trut& M. Pa˘trut. (Eds.), Social Media in Politics: Case Studies on the Political Power of Social Media (pp. 201-211). London: Springer.Chadwick, A. (2013). The hybrid media system: Politics and power. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Dezˇelan, T., Vobicˇ, I., & Maksuti, A. (2014). Twitter campaigning in the 2011 national election in Slovenia. In B. Pa˘trut& M. Pa˘trut. (Eds.). Social Media in Politics: Case Studies on the Political Power of Social Media (pp. 141-163). London: Springer.Eijaz, A. (2013). Impact of new media on dynamics of Pakistan politics. Journal of Political Studies, 20(1), 113-130.Ess, C. (2009). Digital Media Ethics, Cambridge: Polity. Evans, H.K. Cordova, V., &Sipole, S. (2014). Twitter Style: An Analysis of How House Candidates Used Twitter in Their 2012 Campaigns. PS: Political Science and Politics, 4(2), 454-462. Fraia, G. D., & Missaglia, M. C. (2014). The use of Twitter in 2013 Italian political election. In B. Pa˘trut& M. Pa˘trut. (Eds.). Social Media in Politics: Case Studies on the Political Power of Social Media (pp. 63-77). London: Springer.Guleria, A., Sharma, A., Bansan, D., & Sharma,G. (2016). The Impact of the Electronic Campaign by the Political Parties on the Voters. SSRN. Retrieved 2 May, 2018 from, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2750224Johannessen, M. R. (2014). Genres of participation in social networking systems: A Study of the 2013 Norwegian Parliamentary Election, (pp. 26-37). Efthimios Tambouris Ann Macintosh Frank Bannister (Eds.). Electronic Participation. Proceedings of 6th IFIP WG 8.5 International Conference, ePart 2014 Dublin, Ireland, September 2-3, 2014. New York: Springer.Imran, M. (2018, March 27). Sharif children submitted forged trust deeds to Panamagate JIT, Wajid Zia tells court. Dawn, Retrieved from https://www.dawn.com/news/1397847Keane, J. (2009). Monitory Democracy and Media Saturated Societies. Griffith Review, (24), 47.Kovic, M., Rauchfleisch, A., Metag, J., Caspar, C., & Szenogrady, J. (2017). Brute force effects of mass media presence and social media activity on electoral outcome. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, DOI: 10.1080/19331681.2017.1374228.Michailidou, A. (2017). Twitter, public engagement and the Eurocrisis: More than an Echo chamber? In M. Barisione & A. Michailidou. (Eds.). Social media and European politics: Rethinking power and Legitimacy in the digital era (pp. 241-266). London: Palgrave.Pakistan Muslim League (N). (2013). National agenda for real change Manifesto 2013. Islamabad: Author. Posetti, J. (2010, March 2). The #Spill Effect: Twitter Hashtag Upends Australian Political Journalism. Retrieved from http://mediashift.org/2010/03/the-spill-effect-twitter-hashtag-upends-australian-political-journalism061/.Rafi, M. S. (2017). Bilingualism and identity construction in the digital discourse. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, doi: 10.1080/17447143.2017.1342649.Riessman, C.K. (2000). Analysis of personal narratives. Qualitative Research of Social Work.168-191.Riessman, C.K. (2008). Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences. London: Sage.Salcido, M.R. (1984). Social work practice in political campaigns. Social Work, 29 (2),189–191.Shafiq,M., Sultana,R.,&Munir, M. (2017). Political rhetoric; slogan politics in Pakistan and role of parliament. FWU Journal of Social Sciences, 11(2), 26-38.Shen, F. (2016). Social Media, Mobile Communication, and the Elections: Examining Independent Candidates’ Weibo Use for Local People’s Congress Election Campaigns in China. In R. Wei (Ed.). Mobile Media, Political Participation, and Civic Activism in Asia:Private Chat to Public Communication (pp. 159-176). Dordrecht: Springer.Spaiser, V., Chadefaux, T., Donnay, K., Russman, F., &Helbing, D. (2017). Communication power struggles on social media: A case study of the 2011–12 Russian protests. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 14 (2), 132-153. Vaccari, C., Valeriani, A., Barberá, P., Bonneau, R., Jost, J.T., Nagler, J.,& Tucker, J. (2013). Social media and political communication. A survey of Twitter users during the 2013 Italian general election. Rivistaitaliana di scienzapolitica, 43 (3), 381-410.Westling, M. (2007). Expanding the public sphere: the impact of Facebook on political communication. The New Vernacular, 28, 1-13.

Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Institute of Communication Studies
University of the Punjab, Quaid-e-Azam Campus, Lahore - 54590, Pakistan.

E-Mail : ed.jms.ics@gmail.com

Phone No. : 92-42-99231225