Fueling divisions: a multimodal analysis of Canadian petro-nationalism in the social media discourse of “oil sands strong”

ABSTRACTThis research conducts a multimodal critical discourse analysis of social media posts by Oil Sands Strong (OSS), examining their role in advocating for resource extraction through the use of “petro-nationalism” discourse. The analysis uncovers three key aspects: First, the posts employ multimodal semiotic resources to create dichotomies and blend nationalist and xenophobic discourses with energy discourse. Second, they integrate diverse multimodal symbolic elements from various discursive frameworks to forge a collective identity for the local Canadian community. Lastly, the posts stigmatize foreign oil producers, new energy industries, and environmentalists, employing multimodal symbols to obfuscate the argument's focal point and generate a hybrid discourse. Through visual symbols, assertive text, and argumentation of topoi, the posts present an exaggerated and distorted image of petro-nationalism. The study concludes that these multimodal posts aim to reshape Canadian energy politics, promote biased sentiments, exploit cultural prejudices, and formulate petro-nationalism narratives for resource extraction advocacy.KEYWORDS: Oil Sands Strong (OSS)Canadian petro-nationalismmultimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA)topoisocial media posts AcknowledgementWe would like to express our gratitude to editors and anonymous reviewers for their extraordinarily helpful comments. All posts featured in this article were taken from Facebook accounts.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 The above information is from OSS official website. https://oilsandsstrong.com/.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by Basic research funds for colleges and universities in Autonomous region (XJEDU2022P031), 2022 Autonomous Region “Tianchi Talent” Introduction Plan Project, and Shandong Social Science Planning Project (21DYYJ05).