Political Economy, New Media, and Nigerian Popular Cultures

The Nigerian media industry, with the introduction of information and communication technologies, social networking sites, and the internet, has energized popular cultures that revolve around movies (Nollywood, Hollywood, Bollywood etc.), music (Afro-hip hop, American music), sports (football, European leagues), fandom, celebrity worship, religious movements, pentecostalism, nationalistic identities, online streaming platforms, ‘yahoo-yahoo’ cultures, money ritualism and so on. Thus, the present book examines how political economy theory of the media has been used to shape these listed popular cultures in the country and what uses and gratifications people seek from them, how people symbolically interacted with them, and how they socially learn from these popular cultures. As a matter of fact, using cogent and relevant case studies with postulations of popular economy theory of the media, the papers have looked into the intersection between political economy theory, popular cultures and new media using postulations from other relevant media theories and methodologies. Communication, popular cultures and media studies’ scholars and students will find this book useful for academic purposes.