HUMOUR AS A CRISIS COMMUNICATION STRATEGY: CONTENT ANALYSIS OF SELECTED COVID-19 FACEBOOK CARTOONS, IMAGES AND SKITS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

That the virtual space is a fertile sphere for robust contestations and discourses is no longer news. The fact is equally settled in communication scholarship, cultural studies, psychology and other fields that humour plays significant roles in public exchanges, no matter how serious. Apart from its catharsis and therapeutic effects, humour is often used to speak truth to power just as those in power can creatively deploy it to meaningfully construct reality. The question however is how effectively is this vital genre of communication being utilized in the digital space and especially during crisis? This study examined through Content Analysis, the categories, patterns and directions of messages in selected Facebook cartoons, images and video skits in Nigeria in the heat of the global Corona Virus Pandemic (COVID-19).A total of 105images, cartoons including video skits that trended on the pandemic between March and July 2020 were purposively selected and analyzed. A coding manual and scheme were designed with content categories such as irony, satire, parody, satire, caricature etc. while forms of humour like written text, image or video were also taken into account. Findings revealed that a lot of Nigerians hid under humour to ventilate their emotions against perceived inconsistent government actions during the COVID-19 crisis and that the preponderance of ironies, sarcasm, parody and satires in the analyzed humours betrayed people's skepticism of Government policies. The study concludes that because of its appeal and potency, Government and its agencies should incorporate humour in their crisis communication strategies.