Discourse Analysis of Social Media Commentaries on Extrajudicial Killings in Nigeria (Uromi, 2025) and Zambia (2026)

Abstract

This study investigated the discursive construction of extrajudicial killings in the digital sphere, focusing on the 2025 Uromi massacre in Nigeria and the 2026 “magical accusation” marketplace case in Zambia. The aim was to analyse how digital publics justified or resisted jungle justice through social media interactions, with objectives that included identifying linguistic tropes in mob narratives, examining thematic patterns of justification and resistance, and evaluating the impact of magical accusations on audience sentiment. The study was anchored on Mediatised Conflict Theory (Cottle, 2006), which explains how media amplify local conflicts into spectacles, and Social Constructivism (Berger & Luckmann, 1966), which illuminates how publics co‑create social realities through discourse. A qualitative research design was employed, combining Netnography to observe digital publics in their natural online environments with Critical Discourse Analysis to interrogate linguistic tropes, thematic patterns, and socio‑cultural contexts. The population comprised digital users engaging with content on extrajudicial killings, from which a purposive sample of 30 high‑engagement comments relating to the Uromi massacre and the Zambian marketplace case was selected. Findings revealed that digital commentaries functioned as surrogate tribunals, weaponising institutional distrust and moral panic to validate violence. The study concluded that the “digital gavel” facilitated a collective social reality that bypassed the presumption of innocence, thereby posing a grave threat to the rule of law. Recommendations included implementing digital literacy programmes to counter harmful narratives and strengthening judicial communication strategies to restore public trust in formal legal processes.