Abstract
This study examines hashtag expressions as multimodal communicative resources in the digital mediation of protest during the 2020 #EndSARS movement in Nigeria. Adopting an interpretivist analytical perspective, the paper investigates how hashtags such as #EndSARS, #SoroSoke, and #EndPoliceBrutality shaped protest narratives, mobilised youth participation, and sustained online engagement across social media platforms. Anchored in Kress and van Leeuwen’s multimodal discourse analysis framework and Zappavigna’s hashtag discourse theory, the study analysed twenty purposively selected hashtagged multimodal contents drawn from Facebook, Instagram, and X. The analysis reveals that hashtags functioned beyond their conventional indexing role to operate as ideological markers, emotional cues, and rallying points that amplified collective identity and political consciousness among protesters. The findings further demonstrate that the strategic combination of textual, visual, and symbolic elements within hashtag expressions enhanced message circulation, solidarity formation, and memory construction of the protest. The study concludes that multimodal hashtag practices significantly reshape the organisation, representation, and remembrance of digital protest within Nigeria’s contemporary socio-political context.
Keywords: Hashtags, Multimodal Discourse, #EndSARS, Protest Communication, Social Media
DOI: www.doi.org/10.36349/sojolics.2025.v01i01.021
author/Mammud Olayinka AJIA & Oluwatomi Adeoti
journal/Sokoto JOLICS 1(1) | June 2025 |
