A pragmatics perspective of the role of social media in security and peace building discourse in Nigeria

Publication Details

Publication Date

11/07/2026

Volume / Issue

Vol 1, Issue 2 (2026)

Article No.

012

Journal

British Journal of Contemporary Research

Received

05 Jun 2026

Views

6

Downloads

5

Abstract

The proliferation of social media has transformed communication dynamics globally with significant implications for security and peacebuilding in a developing nation such as Nigeria. This study investigates the pragmatics role of social media in shaping security narratives and peace-building discourse in Nigeria. It adopts the socio-pragmatics approach of Anglo-American view of Pragmatics as a theoretical framework. It is a descriptive mixed research. The data were questionnaire and excerpts from social media platforms: Facebook, Whatsapp and X purposively selected to unravel the role of social media in security and peace-building discourse in Nigeria. The findings reveal that socio-pragmatic strategies of politeness, speech acts, lexical choices and diplomacy in language use are veritable means of enhancing security and peace-building in Nigeria. The study also reveals that there are correlations between language, social media and peace-building in Nigerian online discourses. The study engages critical issues on security and peace-building in Nigeria, at a time the country is grappling with security challenges and the role social media plays in ensuring peace and harmony in the country. It concludes that security agencies and peace mediators should be strategic in information gathering and data management, especially with online information, to forestall security breaches and maintain peace in Nigeria.

License

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License . Free to read, share, and adapt with attribution.