Affective Democratic Discourse and Lisa Hanna: The Representation and Treatment of a Jamaican Woman Politician on Social Media
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Date
2023-09
Authors
Atkinson, Esrick
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Publisher
Mount Saint Vincent University
Abstract
This graduate project was conducted to get a better understanding of how women, specifically women politicians in the Global South, are treated on social media. The unique case of Lisa Hanna was chosen and 167 posts were extracted from her Facebook page during the period of March and October 2022. A Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was undertaken, in order to get a better understanding of how Hanna self- presented personally and politically on Facebook. The CDA was also instrumental in helping the researcher to highlight the manner in which the discourse from the comments section on Hanna’s posts represented her as well as the role played by affect in determining how Hanna was treated on Facebook. Eight major themes were extracted from the discourse and interpreted based on the theories of intersectionality and affect. The findings were also discussed within the Jamaican context from which they emerged, and my experiences and personal observations as a Black Jamaican man, who studied political science, were incorporated into the interpretation of these findings.