TY - JOUR
T1 - Covid-19 WhatsApp sticker memes in Oman
AU - Al-Zidjaly, Najma
N1 - Najma Al Zidjaly is an associate professor of social media and Omani Arab identity in the English Department of College of Arts & Social Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University.
PY - 2022/8/7
Y1 - 2022/8/7
N2 - In this paper, the form and function of personalized Covid-19 WhatsApp sticker memes created and shared as social laments by citizens in Oman are examined. The compiled data set of 288 WhatsApp stickers was taken from a larger ethnographic project on Arabs and Covid-19. To collect and analyze the data, perspectives from visual semiotics were integrated with participatory and geosemiotic approaches to ground the stickers socially and globally. Six functions of Covid-19 WhatsApp stickers in Oman were identified: expressing political dissent, creating public signs, promoting religious agenda, indexing frustration, expressing levity and constructing counter-discourse. Based on this analysis, it is suggested that by creating and using WhatsApp stickers during the 2020-2021 Covid-19 pandemic, Omani citizens positioned themselves as agentive participants in charge of their own lives, thus, solidifying a decade-long request for a new form of public-government relationship. The paper adds to research on Arabic digital communication and pandemic discourse.
AB - In this paper, the form and function of personalized Covid-19 WhatsApp sticker memes created and shared as social laments by citizens in Oman are examined. The compiled data set of 288 WhatsApp stickers was taken from a larger ethnographic project on Arabs and Covid-19. To collect and analyze the data, perspectives from visual semiotics were integrated with participatory and geosemiotic approaches to ground the stickers socially and globally. Six functions of Covid-19 WhatsApp stickers in Oman were identified: expressing political dissent, creating public signs, promoting religious agenda, indexing frustration, expressing levity and constructing counter-discourse. Based on this analysis, it is suggested that by creating and using WhatsApp stickers during the 2020-2021 Covid-19 pandemic, Omani citizens positioned themselves as agentive participants in charge of their own lives, thus, solidifying a decade-long request for a new form of public-government relationship. The paper adds to research on Arabic digital communication and pandemic discourse.
KW - COVID-19 disease
KW - Oman
KW - Memes
KW - stickers
KW - WhatsApp
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137236873&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85137236873&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Article
SN - 0957-9265
VL - 33
SP - 690
EP - 716
JO - Discourse and Society
JF - Discourse and Society
IS - 5
M1 - 1
ER -