Mixing “Nonsense with Substance”: Negotiating Satirical and Investigative Journalism Hybrid Genre in Nigeria

Abstract

ABSTRACT Journalism has witnessed steady transformations over the years. Peripheral actors’ intrusion into the mainstream journalism practice has added extra layers to our understanding of these changes. This study examines the interplay between satirical journalism and investigative journalism in Nigerian setting. The study employs a semistructured interview to evaluate how satirical and investigative journalism genres blend. Through this process, the study interrogates how the hybridity of this genre is negotiated in an African/Nigerian setting. Ten satirists (participants) provided a self-assessment of their production process. The study demonstrates that Nigerian satirical shows such as Pararan Mock News and Keepin it Real with Adeola fill a gap in Nigerian journalism where many news organisations are not critical of the government. This type of satire performs the watchdog role of journalism by calling the powerful to account through humour and jokes. As such, the line between satirical journalism and mainstream journalism keeps blurring. Although satirical journalism is evolving in Nigeria, scholarship in this area should consider it as a genuine source of (political) information and an important form of public sense-making and knowledge production. The taxonomy of satirical journalism emerging from this study includes critical, entertainment, advocacy and investigative satire. In all, this study has established that journalism and comedy practice could blend together in news satire to create a hybrid genre that combines “substance” and “nonsense” to interrogate societal anomalies.