Exploring democracy and violence in Burundi: A multi-methodical analysis of hegemonic discourses on Twitter

Abstract

Burundi has garnered international headlines since April 2015 insofar as the country entered a serious political crisis and fell into conflict. The utilization of social media by the leadership amid the chaos and the lack of studies regarding the top-down uses of social media prompted the authors to explore the Twitter usage by the Burundian presidency and the presidency’s spokesperson. The authors’ research is developed through three main research areas that interact and inform each other: hegemonic discourses on democracy and elections; hegemonic discourses on violence and conflict; and hegemonic discourses on foreign media representations. By employing quantitative content analysis and the Discourse Historical Approach, they intend to present an in-depth analysis of the Twitter accounts of the Burundian presidency and the presidency’s spokesperson as an arena of institutional communication and hegemonic struggle. They first briefly review the conflict under study and present main concepts that dominate this article such as discourse and hegemony. Thereafter, they present their interdisciplinary approach as an adequate methodology to analyse, understand and explain the intricate complexities of hegemonic discourse that may evolve on social media. Finally, they proceed to the analysis of the most characteristic tweets to illustrate the significance of their interdisciplinary approach to the study of Twitter.