Mediating Electronic Dangerscapes: A Multimodal Analysis of a State-sponsored Newspaper Warning Advertisement in Nigeria

Abstract

In recent years, Nigeria’s image has always been negatively depicted in the global media, as the country’s name is associated with some of the world’s most sophisticated cybercriminals. The situation with the country’s perceived dented reputation, most especially in the Southeast Asia, Western Europe and the United States of America, is ripe for the anti-cybercrime discourse to take root, and subsequently, become a fertile ground for various parties to contribute to the grand discourse from different perspectives. This article highlights the way Nigerian government, through its revenues generating agency, the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), utilizes a print media warning advertisement (WA) to discursively construct and showcase its efforts in combating cybercrimes. The study utilizes Fairclough’s three-layered model for approaching discourse to analyse the FIRS-sponsored WA, which was published in The Guardian newspaper on 2 May 2013. The study incorporates analytical tools from the visual grammar (VG) and the multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) to examine the visual dimensions constituting the frame of the WA. The study revealed how the Nigerian government, through the FIRS sponsored WA, has attempted to discursively draw the attention of the general public to the potential dangers associated with the cybercriminals and their activities as well as suggesting the best ways to escape falling into their traps. The study recommends that governments and other civil societies should explore other means of creating more awareness to the general public, given the speed at which cyber-related crimes upsurge globally at the present time.