AKPABIO EMEM ANITA
PAN-ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY, SCHOOL OF MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONAHMED ONIBODU, VICTORIA ISLAND, LAGOS
EMAIL: [email protected]
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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