Media Representations of Verbal Aggression as Fill-in-the-argumentativeness-gap Strategy in Political Communication

Abstract This work examines the concept of verbal aggressiveness as a discursive feature of interactional practice in political communication. Drawing from the discursive traditions of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), and General Aggression Model the paper engages qualitative-descriptive approach and content analysis method as analytic framework. The data is elicited from specific political contexts produced in Nigeria within a specific period leading up to 2023 general elections. The data analysis establish a number of empirical facts, notably: (i) discursive constructions of verbal aggressiveness as fill-in-the-argumentative-gap strategy in political communication underscore the dynamics of social power abuse, and  dominance that characterise differential power relations; (ii) the identified socio-psychological triggers for destructive trait of aggressive communication are intended to attack self-concepts of real or imagined political adversaries; (iii) the multiple social functions of verbal aggressiveness suffice to define the discursive construction and maintenance of intra and intergroup relations.