AKPABIO EMEM ANITA

PAN-ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY, SCHOOL OF MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONAHMED ONIBODU, VICTORIA ISLAND, LAGOS

EMAIL: meto4liffe@yahoo.co.uk

Keywords: Nigerian youth, Internet, Nigerian media, new media,

Celebrity

TOPIC:

THE INFLUENCE OF ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS ON THE DRESSING AND

LANGUAGE OF NIGERIAN YOUTH.

INTRODUCTION

Nigerian youths seem to evolve with every song they hear, every

outfit they are exposed to, every web page they open, every

advert they see and every slang they hear. The Nigerian youth

changes every year, new topics and issues trend on different

media platforms and young people are sucked in. The Nigerian

media evolves with the political dispensation of the time. New

technologies have also changed the way the media presents

information. Hunter and Donaldson (2010) state that entertainment

is the fastest growing activity on the internet, the ubiquity it

possesses is a huge opportunity for the entertainment industry

and an expectation for the ever-demanding consumer. The media has

strong contributory factors on the attitudes and perceptions of

the audience (McCombs and Shaw, 1972) but these factors vary, it

could be very strong like the powerful effects theory suggests or

it could be selective based on the choice of the receiver as the

uses and gratifications and perception theories suggest. The

Nigerian media is one step ahead when it comes to entertainment,

they continuously report it and play it several times, infact it

can be said that the media beats the news out of news. This paper

seeks to discuss the influence the media has on the way young

people dress, the kind of music they listen to and love and the

way they speak and relate to each other.

NIGERIAN YOUTH

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA, 2003) defines youth as

those between the ages of 15-25 years old and the Nigerian Youth

Policy (2001) defines it as young people between the ages of 18-

35. Commonly, youths are defined as young people, male or female

between the ages of 18-35, but for the purpose and relevance of

this topic, the focus would be on those between the ages of 18-

25, typically in the university. Young people are characterized

by the kind of clothes they wear (which could be viewed as very

westernized), they way they talk (majorly informal) with a lot of

slangs and language invented by artists, actors and media content

creators. The raison d'être is that, they usually have a keen

interest in entertainment: what celebrities are wearing, what

they say and how they say it.

THE NIGERIAN MEDIA: ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS REPORTAGE

The internet has become a powerful tool for information

dissemination and several media outlets have an online presence.

The National Mirror (March, 2014) reported that Nigeria’s online

users have increased to 64 million (Azeez, 2014). The National

Communication Commission as at April 2014, reported that

64,813,890 people subscribed to mobile internet services in

Nigeria. This shows that Nigerians have an ardent interest in the

online space.

Baran and Davis (2006) recognize the advantages and rewards of

getting news from the internet, it includes; more detail, greater

depth, more variety of approach, more sophisticated reports and

alternative perspectives. Another advantage online sites have is

the use of pictures. Pictures tell a thousand words and add

validity to the story.

There are several online media outlets that report entertainment

news in Nigeria, some of them include: naij.com,

todaysnigeria.com, the net.ng, jaguda.com, dailystar.com,

naijamayor.com, pulsing.com, stargist.com, bellanaija.com,

lindaikeji.blogspot.com are the most popular sites visited by

Nigerian youth. These sites are among the top rated sites in the

country. Linda Ikeji’s blog is the 11th most visited blog site in

the country; reports are mainly on entertainment news and gossip.

Naija.com is the 23rd most visited site in the country, Dailymail

is the 24th, Bellanaija is the 26th, Pulse is the 46th and TheNet

is the 92nd. These are among the first 100 most visited sites in

the country.

Most of these sites have been accused of reporting false and

sensational stories which could be damaging to the reputation of

the party being discussed.

There have been countless circumstances where false news has been

reported, for example:

Tu face Idibia impregnates his personal accountant: which was

first reported by The African Eye and eventually reported by

countless gossip blogs and sites. Tu face intended to sue the

gossip site but they took down the story and apologised publicly.

Olamide expecting baby number 2: Linda Ikeji, the most visited

blog site in the country and Netng.com reported on the 25th of

March 2014 that Olamide (a rap artist), was expecting his second

child with his long-time girlfriend. The singer took to twitter

and posted a tweet at the bloggers saying: “you do not drag

peoples name through the mud just like that. You got fake news

about me and you went ahead to post it on your blog. That is

unprofessional of you. With your level of achievement, you are

not expected to write about what you did not verify”.

Pastor Adeboye’s son corrects Linda Ikeji over false baby story:

On the 25th of February, 2013, Linda Ikeji posted a story

congratulating Leke Adeboye and his family on the birth of their

baby. Leke took to twitter to correct the rumour: “@lindaikeji we

done had the baby already, for real gists follow me. Your source

is slow and unreliable”.

Online entertainment sites publish several stories on a daily

basis, due to their lack of investigative journalism they spend

more time duplicating each other rather than standing out among

the rest. Once one of them publishes a story within minutes the

others have copied the story and pictures, if any and publish.

The only thing that differs is the headline. Despite these

occurrences, it is still interesting to discover that these sites

enjoy a lot of traffic on a daily basis. Linda Ikeji’s blog post

is the 11th most visited site in the country and the one with the

most incidents of false stories. Last year, eight celebrities

accused the blogger of circulating fake rumours without verifying

directly from them.

EFFECTS OF MEDIA ON DRESSING

It is without question that the Nigerian society and culture has

been permeated by the Western world. We have adopted various

aspects of their culture for example: dressing. (Mowlana, 1998)

argues that this can be linked to what is being reported by the

media from developed countries, and developing countries are just

adopting what they see on the foreign scene. (Mangwere,

Wadesango, & Kurebwa, 2013) state that 56% of the teenagers

sampled are very exposed to the internet and 86% of them spend

their time on the internet reading and browsing the lives of

famous people and celebrities. They further discovered that

teenagers prefer Western forms of dressing which they find more

comfortable than their traditional clothes and they also believe

they should dress in a modernized manner since that is what they

are exposed to from television, radio, magazines and the

internet.

There is this new trend where young people dress up in imitation

of their look-alike celebrities and post these pictures on the

internet. (Hofner & Buchanan, 2005) in their study found that

attractiveness to a TV character or celebrity could lead the

young person to begin to model him or herself to resemble the

person. Recently, MTN Nigeria, got its ambassadors to go in

search of their look-alike and the winners will be treated to an

all expense paid holiday and VIP entrance to their shows and

concerts. The celebrities include: Tiwa Savage, Davido and

Inyanya. 70,000,000 young people across the country are expected

to send pictures where they dressed like the celebrities: same

hairdo, same clothes, same shoes and two winners each will be

selected (Deolu, 2014).

(Omede, 2011) states that the media is a very strong agent of

socialization and as much as there are a lot of positive benefits

to be gained, the negative aspect is just as bad if not worse.

The wrong use of the internet can strongly be attributed to

manner in which most young people dress, which in his opinion is

indecent, especially on higher institutions in the country.

Fashion is easily traded between countries and cultures. He

strongly advices parents, media stakeholders and young people to

sifter what to take and what to leave.

EFFECTS OF MEDIA ON LANGUAGE

The types of media people are exposed to can affect them in

different ways, and language is no exception, infact language can

be said to be one of the most affected. Peter Trudgill (1988), a

sociolinguist stated that language change comes from the

transmission and exposure to other geographical regions and could

be as a result of speakers altering their speech to suit those

they are talking to or want to imitate.

Arowolo (2010) argues that exposure to the western culture has

changed the way Africans relate and behave and language is a part

of. All media is involved, from television to radio, books,

magazines, films and the internet, which has the ability to

converge all forms of media within it. Young people have found

themselves speaking differently from their parents. Because the

internet is easier and more convenient, this has made new quotes

and slangs easy to spread far and wide.

The trend in Nigeria is that once an artist releases a song, the

title of the song is seen all over the internet in hashtags and

mentions. Phyno, a rap artist released a song early this year,

titled “alobam” which he sang in Igbo, most users of the word do

not understand what the word means but it has stuck on the lips

of many young Nigerians. Almost all the entertainment sites in

Nigeria have also written stories on the meaning of the word and

the speculations surrounding it.

THE POWERFUL EFFECTS THEORY OF ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT SITES ON

NIGERIAN YOUTH.

Entertainment seems to have infused a certain culture in Nigerian

youth that has become a part of this generation. Nigerian youths

want to be as cool as the celebrities they read about and this

has also led to a “get rich quick” phenomenon among a vast

majority of Nigerian youth. They want to seen as fashionable,

wearing the exact designer clothes seen on celebrities or

directly off the runway. There is this aspiration to be linked to

the contemporary African American identity especially from rap

and hip hop music. Most Nigerian youth want to talk like

Americans, this has permeated into our on air personalities, who

are mostly young people, struggling to speak in an accent that is

not originally theirs (Shonekan, 2013).

The powerful effects do not claim supremacy but states that the

media can greatly affect behaviour and perception of media

messages. Bineham (1988) quotes Wartell and Reeves, stating that

these effects can even pertain to different age groups. Messages

can affect age groups differently, the way a 40 year old will

perceive a scantily clad celebrity is different from 20 year old,

who is still exploring her body and understanding the changes

happening to her.

POWERFUL EFFECTS ON DRESSING: BELLANAIJA WEDDINGS, ASOEBI BELLA.

Asoebi Bella is a section of the Bellanaija website, developed on

1st July 2006, which is a fashion and lifestyle blog that

transitioned into a website by 2013. Asoebi Bella is a section of

the website under weddings where young ladies and sometimes men

send pictures of themselves in traditional and contemporary

outfits, on their way to an occasion, usually over the weekend.

It was initiated on the 19th of September, 2013.

The first edition had only 24 pictures and the styles were

moderate, featuring mostly simple lace skirts and blouses and

simple Ankara dresses. By the following week, in the next edition

posted on the 26th September, there were 33 stylish outfits on

display. At the first week the blog had 12,000 followers and by

the third week, it was up at 19,000 followers. With each edition

the styles became more creative, raunchy and versatile, followers

increased and the blog was unable to post all the pictures that

were being received.

Only the most creative and innovative styles were put up.

Children were also being showcased on the website. Initially

styles were posted every two weeks but by the sixth edition, the

submissions were posted every week. There are also special

editions to herald in a new trend in the fashion industry and

showcase acceptance of this trend. Asoebi Bella has grown in a

short period of time, on Facebook the fan base has grown to

313,617 people, Instagram: 227,000 people and Twitter: 8,588

people, uploading pictures daily and copying outfits. Every hour,

at least two people post tweets to the hashtag: asoebibella.

People go as far as dropping hints on how to get your picture

featured on asoebibella, send out countless tweets celebrating

that they were featured.

Below is a brief overview of how the fan base increased:

VOLUME FIVE: October, 64 submissions and 25,000 followers

VOLUME SIX: October, 110 submissions and almost 30,000 followers

VOLUME SEVEN: October, 44 submissions and over 30,000 followers

VOLUME EIGHT: SPECIAL EDITION on knot wrapper: Followers were

taught how to tie the wrapper.

VOLUME 10: November 2013, 44 submissions and an increase to

40,000 followers.

VOLUME 15: December 2013, 129 submissions and almost at 50,000

followers.

VOLUME 20: January 2014, 101 submissions and 70,000 followers.

POWERFUL EFFECTS ON LANGUAGE: “DOROBUCCI” BY MAVIN RECORDS

Dorobucci is a song composed by the all the musical acts signed

to Mavin Records, they include: Don Jazzy, Tiwa Savage, Dr Sid

and D’Prince. The song introduces the new acts signed to the

record, Reekado Banks, Korede Bello and Di’Ja. It was released on

the 1st of May 2014. The song is a hit and has sparked frenzy

among Nigerian youths and the entire country. Upon release, the

song has been downloaded 12 million times; it has been viewed on

Youtube 566,469 times. Due to its popularity the song is featured

on itunes.com and can be purchased there for a dollar. In fact

the song became so popular that when “meaning of” is searched on

google, dorobucci comes out first.

The word “dorobucci” had already been circulating the internet

prior to its release, CEO, Mavin Records, Don Jazzy had been hash

tagging the word for months in anticipation of the release. The

song has gone beyond its jurisdiction and has entered the lips of

Nigerian youth. People have now changed their names to include a

word whose meaning is yet to be determined. Names such as

“Dorobisi” “Dorotina” and the likes are on the lips of young

Nigerians. The name trended on twitter; over five million twitter

users have mentioned “Doro” in their tweets.

An online entertainment website (360nobs.com) conducted a small

poll on what Nigerian youths think the word means. Reactions

include: a wealthy person, drawing water from a well, a gyration

song, it means “me”, buccaneers fun, bring down, I have stated my

point, golden, something nice and cool. However, since its

release, no member of the entire Mavin crew has come forward to

put these rumours to rest, the meaning of the word is still being

speculated four months after its release, and it continues to

trend everyday all over the world with an average of 44 tweets a

day.

USES AND GRATIFICATION OF NIGERIAN YOUTH

There are several ways the audience can perceive and consume a

message, it could be the presentation of the message, the

availability and ease with which they can get the message and the

way the message can affect their behaviour and choices, in the

case of this paper, their dressing and language. A good number of

Nigerians have internet access and it is assumed that Nigerian

youth constitute the majority of these internet users. They have

these facilities on their mobile phones and so have access to

websites and entertainment sites. (Baran & Davis, 2006).

The uses and gratification theory states that the audience is

active and goal-oriented, the audience member makes the decisions

and decides what form of media to he/she wants to be exposed to.

The theory also states that many of the goals of media use can be

gotten from the individual audience members, which is the case

with most of the websites stated above. With the exception of a

few that verify their sources (bellanaija), the rest engage in a

lot of false and sensationalized stories. Most online users are

now content creators, which has led to more confusion as to the

credibility of certain stories published on the internet.

(McQuail, 2005) states that uses and gratification can be applied

differently to apply to new electronic media, such as the

internet, relative similarity with different media is associated

with differences of anticipation and gratifications sought. The

internet is ubiquitous and hardly has any control and so the

audience must decide how he will perceive these messages.

USES AND GRATIFICATION OF DRESSING: STELLA DAMASCUS WEAVE-ON.

Nollywood actress, Stella Damascus, posted three pictures on her

Instagram page on the 12th of August, 2013. She had on an

extremely massive afro weave. The pictures came with three

different quotes about life, motivation, pure thoughts and

meditation. This weave is part of her weave-on product line,

which she produces and owns. Stella, usually posts pictures of

wigs and weave-on on social media as part of publicity for her

hair product line called “Adiva”. This move sparked various

reactions from people all over the country. All the gossip blogs

reported it and hundreds of comments came in. Several followers

could not understand the relevance of such a massive wig, while

her ardent fans praised and encouraged her look.

The photo received over 500 comments and about 600 people liked

the picture and stated that they will purchase the product. It is

worthy of note that Stella Damascus has a huge online fan base,

with 203,000 followers on Twitter and 20,532 followers on

Instagram, this is a clear indication of the number of people she

can reach when she posts a message.

Over twenty blogs and entertainment news websites reported the

story and uploaded the pictures. Some of the websites that

reported it are:

Nollywood Mind Space: Stella Damascus New Hair

My Sugar Daily: TF? Check out Stella Damascus new hair- She looks

like a lion.

Olori Supergal: Big fro, Dont care!!

Fuse: Stella Damascus on another attention seeking spree? Actress

flaunts new afro in new photo.

Yaba Left Online: Actress: Stella Damascus rocks huge mega afro

hairdo.

Miss Petite Nigeria: Wow! Check out the massive hair Stella

Damascus is rocking (Photos)

Pulse: Would you rock Stella Damascus massive new hair?

Linda Ikeji: Photos: Stella Damascus rocks mega afro hairdo.

Naij.com: You need to see Stella Damascus gigantic new hair.

Photos.

USES AND GRATIFICATION OF LANGUAGE: CHIDI MOKEME ON EBOLA

PATIENTS.

Nollywood actor, Chidi Mokeme, on Thursday the 14th of August,

2014, stated that any Ebola patient that escapes from the

hospital or goes into hiding should be shot dead. This was line

with one of the nurses who fled to her native home of Enugu,

state after coming in contact with Mr Patrick Sawyer, the man who

reportedly brought the virus into the country.

Mokeme posted several tweets from his twitter account:

“If u're a primary or secondary #Ebola #Suspect and u escape

from #quarantine, U're a Suicidal mass murderer and #WMD. Yes?

#ShootAtSight”.

#Ebola US doctor puts himself in quarantine, Naija nurse escapes

from quarantine! #SameSituation #DifferentReaction #Orientation

#SumTinRung.

If u or someone u know have symptoms or have been in contact with

#Suspected #Ebola #Patient, please report to the nearest

#quarantine #camp

Choosing to run to #Church #Mosque #Pray #Fast #juju instead of

checking into #EbolaQuarantine is #FastTrackToHell cos

#GodKnowsTheProtocol

This tweets received massive condemnation and equally massive

support, a good number of people on the internet condemned the

act and cautioned the celebrity on his choice of words but he

further proceeded to rain even more insults and abuses on those

that challenged his authority. He proceeded to post even more

insulting tweets and went to the extent of mentioning them. He

posted over ten tweets about the “stupid people” challenging him.

The question is, should such harsh words be used on a form of

media that is open and free and should the media itself continue

to give such items prominence?

He had supporters who felt that those who have the virus and are

still roaming the streets should be killed on sight and even

family members that contact the disease should be killed, which

could be a dangerous trend if such things are running through the

minds of people and if such actions are actually carried out.

This story was reported by several online sites, these are a few

examples:

Allafrica.com: Nigeria: Chidi Mokeme Wants Escapee Ebola

Patient(s) Shot.

Bellanaija.com: Ebola: Chidi Mokeme says Victims Who Escape

Quarantine Should Be Shot on Sight.

Nigerianmonitor.com: See what Chidi Mokeme suggests should be

punishment for Ebola Patients who escape quarantine.

LindaIkeji.blogspot.com: Chidi Mokeme feels Ebola patients who

escape from quarantine should be shot at sight.

Nigerianeye.com: Nollywood star, Chidi Mokeme wants escapee

Ebola patients shot.

Thenet.ng: Chidi Mokeme says escaped Ebola patients should be

shot on sight.

Tiwasblog.com: Chidi Mokeme opinion, Ebola patients should be

shot on sight.

Olufamous.com: Any Ebola Patient who Escape should Be Shot.

Brimtime.com: Chidi Mokeme says, any Ebola patient that escapes

should be shot on sight.

Naij.com: Nollywood Actor, Chidi Mokeme has taken to twitter to

share his opinion that Ebola patients who escape from quarantine

should be shot at sight.

CONCLUSION

It is always important to find a balance wherever we find

ourselves, the media must find a balance when posting news online

even though there is the need to stay relevant but there is also

the need to build and maintain a reputation. As there are

entertainment sites that post false news, there are also sites

that have decided to be known to report only what is truthful and

accurate, instead of resorting to creating a sensation that would

only last for all of five minutes. The media alone is not to

blame in this; young people must be educated through the uses and

gratification approach to filter through what they watch and

read, besides if a popular celebrity jumps into fire, no fan of

his will follow. Fashion is a good trend and dressing well should

be embraced, the point here is such trends have been taken to the

extreme and have become a sort of challenge among young women and

even men. It appears that the innocence is being sucked out of

every aspect of our lives. Language is another aspect that cannot

be ignored. In the words of Publilius Syrus “speech is the mirror

of the soul; as a man speaks so he is”. Young people must learn

to speak and use expressions that are proper especially on public

platforms, the kind of comments certain people put online is very

shameful and the way they adopt words whose meanings are unknown

is also a cause for concern. It is about time things change

before they get any worse.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The following recommendations are being proposed:

The internet is free and open but online entertainment sites can

be controlled in terms of the kind of content and pictures they

put up. Terrible and abusive language can be removed by the

administrators of the site but many of them have refused to

utilise these functions.

Fashion blogs and sites should encourage decent dressing among

young women; continuously posting pictures of half naked women is

improper, when it is obvious and clear to all, that people go on

the internet and imitate these outfits.

Celebrities should also be reminded that they are icons in the

society and young people look up to them, if they do not speak

properly and dress decently then they have failed in their roles

as public figures, as wild as the world is becoming there are

celebrities that have continued to project a positive and decent

image.

Parents should not relent in their roles, they must create a

beautiful image of our society to their children and teach them

to choose with a sense of decency, and they should develop their

minds from a tender age so that the realities presently facing

the world will not overwhelm them.

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