Nigerian Audience Research Articles

Nigerian Audience Views on Mainstream Media and Moulding of Public Opinion in the 21st Century

The mass media have been long known to shape and mould public opinion in every human society. However, with the influence of web 2.0 technologies that have affected mainstream journalism practice in the 21st century, this study investigated the extent to which mainstream media still mould public opinion in Nigeria. The paper was anchored on agenda-setting and media dependency theories as it investigated journalism’s ability to mould the views of people on issues of public concern. The survey research design was used where the multi-stage sampling technique was adopted and an online Australian Calculator was used to draw the sample size of 371, the questionnaire was deployed as the instrument for data collection. The results among other things revealed that, though social media and blogs’ usage have influenced mass media and public communication generally, mainstream journalism still moulds public opinion in Nigeria. This was revealed as respondents disclosed that in making decisions, they believe and use more information they obtained from mainstream media platforms than information they got from blogs and social media sites. Keywords: blogs, information, mainstream media, public opinion, public agenda, social media

Multimodal Analysis of Selected Health Awareness Materials: A Visual Grammar Approach

The Visual Grammar approach is effective in examining the communicative value of healthcare posters. As semiotic resources, these posters comprise both images and text for persuasive and informative ends. Previous studies have looked at multilingual health care texts and medical information leaflets using different approaches, but the focus here was monolingual healthcare posters written in English. Hence, this study analyzed five purposefully selected online healthcare posters meant for a Nigerian audience. It looks at the ways image and text cohere as syntagm within narrative and conceptual representations to form persuasive and informative messages, and the multimodal constraints on the healthcare posters as they serve communicative ends. A descriptive research design was adopted to analyse corpus from five online health care materials. Features of the materials were identified and classified according to manifested multimodal features before they were subjected to narrative and conceptual analyses. The way image and text cohere; their functions and communicative values were also discussed to highlight attendant constraints. Findings show that as a multimodal text the healthcare posters employ semiotic resources to project messages as either contextualized or decontextualized. Major and minor semiotic processes, achieved by image and text coherence, form both narrative and conceptual meaning-making units. Added to this informative value are colour variations and font size which are also employed as enhancers of detail, mood and contrast as well as attention drawing devices. Logos of sponsors give the health messages varying credibility values as rhetorical questions and advice-clauses serve persuasive ends. Thus, the study concluded that the communicative potential of a healthcare poster are hinged on semiotic resources that constrain readers’ or viewers’ perceptions on health matters.

Appraisal of the Influence of Broadcast Media on Knowledge of Mental Health among the Nigerian Audience

Appraisal of the Influence of Broadcast Media on Knowledge of Mental Health among the Nigerian Audience

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Implications of Netflix’s Venture into Nollywood Seen From a Local Audience Perspective

Abstract Within the last decade alone different distribution platforms have emerged in the Nigerian movie industry. One of the most notable and potent among these is Netflix. Employing Disruptive Innovation Theory (dit) as notional scaffolding, this article uses key informant interviews (kii) and focus group discussions (fgd) to examine what Netflix’s engagement in Nollywood means in terms of the viability of other distribution outlets. It investigates the ‘good, the bad and the ugly’ sides of the Nollywood-Netflix relationship from the Nigerian audience perspective to give an understanding that can contribute to Nollywood’s healthy expansion. The study argues that the emergence of Netflix leaves many Nollywood content creators (ncc s) begging for acceptance when their content is adjudged inconsequential. This must be creatively challenged and negotiated through ncc s and distributors using available technologies to improve production values, set up and collaboratively operate multiple online distribution platforms for the Nigerian audience’s satisfaction.

The Dynamics of Cultural Diplomacy: A Discourse of Indo-Nigerian Socio-cultural Relations from the 1960s to the Present

This article interrogates the dynamics of cultural diplomacy. It focusses on the socio-cultural aspect of Indo-Nigerian diplomacy. It argues that since the beginning of the relations between Nigeria and India, the social contacts have been on the increase thereby reinforcing cultural diplomacy. It establishes that as creations of British colonial rule, both countries possess certain social and cultural legacies that foster unity between them. This common history has influenced their cultural, artistic, legal, educational and media institutions. The study argues that culture works as an element that can be projected beyond national boundaries as an instrument of diplomacy. Essentially, India, with a population of about 1.37 billion inhabitants, and Nigeria, the largest country in Africa with a population of about 200 million, are two different countries. Nevertheless, they have much in their historical legacy that connects them. These are past experience of British colonialism, struggle for national independence, and continued retention of English as their official language. The article provides an opportunity to explore the common heritage of the two countries and how the heritage influences and shapes the contours of their foreign policy goals. It is organised in five parts excluding the introduction and conclusion. The first part explores the concept of culture and cultural life in India and Nigeria. The second examined cultural identity and national interest, while the third aspect focussed on advancing national interest through culture. The fourth and fifth parts discussed Nigerian audience and Bollywood as well as the impact of Bollywood on Nigerian literature.

Nigerian theatre in a digital era and environment

Theatre, the earliest form of entertainment and enlightenment in Nigeria, is becoming a ghost of itself as a result of its inability to take on the colouration of the times. Some scholars are of the view that there should be a revival of the theatre by establishing more theatre while it remains bonded to its functional root, the live stage, because of its uniqueness. This study examined the likelihood of this renaissance and its survival in the face of the deluge of other media of entertainment in a digitally advanced era and environment. The study relied on the Media Displacement Theory, MDT, which explains a paradigm shift in an individual's use of new media by discarding the preceding one. Using in-depth interviews and Focus Group Discussions, FGD, the study revealed that live theatre-going culture has become unpopular with the Nigerian audience as a result of digital technology and sundry circumstances in recent times, which include insecurity and the COVID-19 outbreak that negates public gathering. The paper advanced that Nigerian theatre cannot afford to remain glued to its roots in a technologically digitalised environment or society, but has to evolve.

Investigating multilingual contexts in the Nigerian advertising space: A domain of intellectual stimulation

This study examined advertising, exhibiting multilingual structures to reach the Nigerian audience. Halliday’s mood system and morphological processes served as the theoretical configurations for analyzing textual elements of advertisements. These contextual terminologies permitted quantitative and qualitative approaches to thrive in order to culminate the investigation. Thus, the analysis showed political motifs, religious spheres, royal domains, musical settings, and friendship environment, as the fascinating panaceas to motivate readers. English, Yoruba, and Hausa languages were functional facilities to mesmerize consumers. However, the advertisements displayed textual interruptions: FEBUHARI, FELABRATION, OBIdiently, and ATIKUlating, being strong prerequisites in persuasive designs. Creativity indicates the logically-minded behavior of publicists in blending grammatical structures of different languages together, yielding a unified whole, generating novel semantic values for regurgitation. It seems indisputable that such textual constructs have the capability to influence lexicographers, increase word-stock(s) of languages, and projecting the advertising industry as possessing cerebral proficiency in linguistics’ advancement.

The Conducting of Instrumental and Choral Ensembles and the Nigerian Audience

The conducting profession had through the years been an exclusive right of a gifted and sensitive musician, capable of dealing authoritatively with professionals in their own field while possessing the right attitude to understand the need of his audience. This paper titled “The conducting of instrumental and choral ensembles and the Nigerian Audience” examines the historical development of conducting from early times through to the 20th Century. It further sees the conductor as more than a mere time beater but as one who is always faced with an increasing complexity of musical scores especially of the orchestral in addition to a high standard of performance always demanded by a critical audience. He must possess the ability to detect, diagnose and remedy a musical fault almost in a flash. Finally, the paper x-rays the contributions of the Muson Centre Lagos, some churches and private choral groups in Nigeria.

Theatre Directing and the Use of Multimedia in Nigerian Theatre: A Study of Segun Adefila’s Production of “Omo Dumping”

Live theatre in Nigeria is in a declining state because of the absence of patronage from Nigerian audiences. A lot of reasons have been advanced for this phenomenon such as the rise of the television and video mediums, the security situation in the country, poor quality of productions due to in adequate fund etc . However, a major cause of the current state of live theatre in Nigeria is as a result of the old fashioned style of interpreting plays that many Nigerian directors are stuck with, and their inability to adopt a media fri endly play production approach that align s with the present social realities of the time. The contemporary Nigerian audience is technology savvy, and would love to see technological traits in theatre productions. As such, Nigerian directors are challenged to employ a media friendly approach in their play interpretations. The foregoing is the aim of this study as this research examines the art of directing and the use of multimedia in Nigerian theatre, using Segun Adefila’s production of “Omo Dumping” as a case study. The study employs the case study and content analysis research approaches of the qualitative research method to realize set objectives, and adopts Hans-Thies Lehmann’s theory of “Postdramatic Theatre” as its theoretical framework. The study observed that the use of multimedia in the production of “Omo Dumping” added more visual impact to the story and enriched the production’s aesthetic vocabulary. It therefore recommends that Nigerian directors embrace the use of multimedia in their productions.

Local Media Going Global: Assessing Online Media Efficiency By Nigerian Audience Abroad

The internet connectivity is projecting the opportunities upon which local mainstream news media (newspaper, radio and television) are reached globally. Even outside the comfort zones of the newspaper circulation as well as radio and Television spectrums, the internet makes a point of contact between the media and the audiences across borders. Assessing the purpose for media going global, which transcends reaching the audience outside the border-bound but accommodates the effort to meet up with the information needs of the international audience, constitutes the major objective of this study. A survey of the diaspora audience of Nigerian online media in Malaysia, UK, South Africa, and the US was conducted through online questionnaire. Sampling the opinions of the media audiences across frontier on whether the media globalisation enhances the quality and structure of media output, this study found out that despite the fact that the general audience assessment of the media was lamentable, the audience appraised newspapers for moving closer to the global prospect ahead TV and Radio. The audience rating of the online media efficiency was discussed on the tenet of media usage based on the information needs that compel gratification. The online access to mainstream media according to the audience remains a laudable innovation that upturns the media questionable outputs and narrows the wide gaps between the media and the audience as well as among the audiences.

Narrative in advertising: persuading the Nigerian audience within the schemata of storyline

The study, as an attempt, considered narrative as a good resource of advertising in the Nigerian environment. In other words, advertisers perceive narrative as a strategy that can stimulate consumers to patronize advertised goods and services. Four adverts of FBN®, MTN®, Orijin® and FIRS® have been chosen to propagate the course appeared on the frameworks. Beside the application of the Labovian schema on narrative, the Halliday’s transitivity system plays an analytical role by assigning semiotic slots to the textual devices. The study reveals that advertising copies a similar pattern of narrative in the society. Apart from the texts serving as relays to the images, the construction of the message is in the resolution sequential string. This provides an opportunity for advertisers to present to the public the gains and benefits of taking decision parallel to the messages of the adverts. Advertisers capitalize of the efforts of past leaders, the challenges of the present and the future of the children to sensitize the audience. The study concludes that narrative should be encouraged in advertising not only as a persuasive approach but also as a means of promoting Nigerian social heritage and treasures.

Performance measurement scale for facilities management service in Lagos-Nigeria

PurposeLiterature established that applicable parameters must be used in determining facilities management (FM) performance in any market; otherwise, findings could be confusing and misleading. This is particularly relevant to Nigeria where FM application is in its infancy and seriously constrained by particular socio-economic conditions which make it prone to crises situations such as frequent power outages and surges, abundance of fake and adulterated construction materials and equipment, heavy presence of unqualified artisans, poor transparency and terribly chaotic and unpredictable traffic to mention a few. Hence, this research aims to identify contextual parameters for evaluating performance of FM service in office buildings in Lagos, reflecting these peculiarities.Design/methodology/approachThe research adopts survey design, using self-administered questionnaires that were served on building occupants. Means and standard deviation were used in the analyses. Factor analysis was used in identifying the important factors or constructs and to confirm the practical significance of the measures.FindingsThe study developed a multi-item scale of 41 measures for evaluating performance of facilities managers in offices in Lagos, Nigeria. The scale comprises three major dimensions, i.e. “financial”, “quality of service” and “crises response and management”. Using factor analysis, the study identified five important factors, two of which (comprising ten new measures) have not been featured in previous studies.Practical implicationsThe developed performance measurement scales (PMS) can be applied to FM performance evaluation, management and control in the Nigerian context. The PMS and identified factors would also aid FM policy formulation, resource allocation and facilities review.Originality/valueThe research is considered the first to develop a PMS for FM in office facilities in Lagos, Nigeria. The new factors and measures that were uncovered in the study makes it possible to evaluate the Nigerian facility manager’s ability to manage the near-crises challenges imposed by the peculiar socio-economic context. Furthermore, the scale adopts simplistic financial success criteria, which makes it relevant and easy to use for the poor financial record disclosing and research-averse Nigerian audience. It is also more relevant to the less strategic and more operational task-based Nigerian FM context and by extension, to the context of other developing countries with similar socio-economic features.

Comedy as a discursive exchange for social change: a study of the social themes of Papa Ajasco and its interpretation by Nigerian audience

Comedy is any form of social exchange that elicits laughter as responses. Characteristically, it generates simultaneously both pleasure and power. In other words, comedy as a form of funniness involves breaking of rules and making the rules so that correct behaviour is implicitly instated (Purdie, 2003). It is on this basis that this study investigated the discursive process through which Papa Ajasco comedy series condemn some social behaviour and signify them as bad or inappropriate in funny but strong terms. Therefore, the study examined some purposefully selected current series of Papa Ajasco on Nigerian television with a view to identifying and explaining the pattern of condemned social behaviours or affairs of this world in the comedy.It also determined the discursive means by which the social behaviours are condemned as transgressions. Essentially, the study sought to understand how randomly selected audience of 50 members, who regularly view Papa Ajasco series on television, interpret the discursive exchange and jokes in the comedy. This was done through an indepth interview that allowed the audience to air their views spontaneously. The study found that Papa Ajasco series indeed appeal to a majority of Nigerians with its unique capacity to provide high spirit that relaxes their minds and provide them with escape valves with which they relieve tensions of work and life. But, beyond this, the series, in melodramatic forms, condemns some social vices and behaviours that are been deeply rooted as ways of life in Nigeria. Meanwhile, the discursive power of the comedy series in condemning the behaviours is interpreted by the audience mostly as jokes. So, the didactic benefit of the series is mitigated by the agency of the audience who interprets the language, meaning and themes of the comedy series as nothing but just jokes and relaxation. The introduction of the features of sitcom does not even change the interpretation pattern; rather it attacks audience attention more to its funniness. Keywords: Comedy, Papa Ajasco, Social change, Discursive process, Social behaviour, Nigerian audience

Rethinking the Image of Women in Recent Nigerian Video-films: The Example of Chinwe Egwuagu's Mr & Mrs

This paper attempts to interrogate the image of women presented to the Nigerian audience in recent Nigerian video-films against the backdrop of some earlier studies that affirm prejudiced and damaging portraitures of Nigerian women. Chinwe Egwuagu's Mr & Mrs has been used as a representative sample of this new trend that projects women largely in positive light. The paper posits that there is, indeed, a need to further re-invent the image of women with a view to negotiating a better space for them, thereby ensuring gender balance. It, nevertheless, cautions against productions that will fall victims of negative, biased and/or inaccurate portrayals of the male gender, thus, rendering efforts of Nigerian video-filmmakers counter-productive.

English

  Based on semi-structure interviews and secondary data, this paper examines the westernization of audiences - among other phenomena - as a serious challenge to the indigenization paradigm in Nigeria in particular and Africa as a whole. It pragmatically argues that this westernization of local audiences theoretically implies the shaping of media output (programming) according to audience interest which, unarguably, is progressively in favor of foreign content. Though commending the indigenization model – for representing a pertinent strategy for curbing the rampaging awful effects of cultural/media imperialism -, the paper argues that the “cloning” of Nigerian audiences into westerners theoretically calls for the instauration of a model of programming that is rather more inclined to heavy foreign media content. This is in line with the fact that, in principle, audience interest is a more cardinal and decisive factor in shaping media content and programming. The paper goes further to recommend moves towards “de-westernizing” and “(re)enculturating” Nigerian audiences. These moves would consist of a network of well planned cultural activities involving other influential social institutions such as religious and education institutions and the family. Through these activities Nigerian audiences may be sensitized to the necessity of conserving their authentic cultural identity (their “Nigerianness”/ “Nigerianity”) and resist their “cloning” into westerners or Americans. Such resistance would make Nigerian audience ready consumers of local media content.   Key words: Westernization, media/cultural imperialism, indigenization model, world information order, audience Interest.

The African filmmaker and content of African films: a study of the perspectives of the Nigerian film audience

This paper attempts to appraise African filmmaking and the content of African films from a Nigerian film audience perspective. The study specifically explores the disposition of the audience towards contemporary African filmmaking for home video and cinema entertainment as well as the content of African films. The study used a qualitative questionnaire to determine the perspectives of residents in Lagos as members of the Nigerian film audience. The study found the perception of the content of contemporary African films, particularly home videos, to vary among the film audience. Opinion largely favoured a new orientation towards a de-emphasis on obscene scenes, rituals, fetish practices, violent crimes and display of partial or total nudity in the content of African films. The study, therefore, recommends that regulatory bodies set up in most African countries, such as the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board, should own up to their responsibilities in terms of ensuring strict compliance of African film makers or producers with rules and regulations guiding film production, content of films and exposure guidelines.

Nollywood Films and the Cultural Imperialism Hypothesis

Abstract From the viewpoint of the cultural imperialism hypothesis and its complications, the overall aim of this study was to find out if foreign films still had a stranglehold on Nigerian audience members. The findings indicate that a majority of respondents watch and have a favorable attitude towards Nigerian home video films. However, in terms of preference between local and foreign films, a small percentage indicated preference for the former. The study concludes that the high quality of production of American films accounts for the favorable views held by respondents, even though it is apparent that these and other foreign productions no longer have a captive market in Nigeria.

Intercultural Creativity in Joshua Uzoigwe's Music

AbstractThis essay presents Joshua Uzoigwe as a Nigerian intercultural composer. A short biography of the composer shows the influence of two cultur—Nigerian (Igbo/Yoruba) and European—on his creative outputs. Uzoigwe's experience in the two cultures has enabled him to compose music which is indisputably a synthesis of Nigerian and European musical idioms. His works are classified into five categories, while the creative style exhibits purely original compositions and works in which Nigerian musical elements are directly utilised. A discussion of Uzoigwe's music includes elements of tonal organisation, elements of dance, elements of musical conception and instrumentation. The issue of bi-culturalism, national identity and the search for a Nigerian audience are some of the problems Uzoigwe attempts to solve in his compositions.