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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Selective believability: a perspective on Africans' interactions with global media
Author:Abubakar, Abdullahi TasiuISNI
Year:2013
Periodical:Journal of African Media Studies (ISSN 1751-7974)
Volume:5
Issue:2
Pages:219-236
Language:English
Geographic terms:Nigeria
Northern Nigeria
Great Britain
Subjects:news agencies
audiences
attitudes
External link:https://doi.org/10.1386/jams.5.2.219_1
Abstract:The transformation of the media landscape, facilitated by advances in communication technologies, has changed the dynamics of media-audience relationship and posed new challenges to reception research. Perhaps nowhere is this as profound as it is in transnational audience studies, for cross-cultural interactions have never been wider. This article attempts to highlight a new perspective on African audiences' engagement with global media and point to new postulates in audience research. It offers a case study on Northern Nigerians' interactions with international media, particularly the BBC World Service, to unveil the patterns and consequences of such interactions. Consumption of Western media products aong the mainly Muslim Northern Nigerians was found to be high, especially of the BBC services, but with high level of selectivity. Although they regard BBC as the most credible broadcaster that aids their understanding of international affairs and influences their everyday lives, Northern NIgerians still see it as a Western ideological instrument that portrays the West positively and depicts the Islamic world and Africa negatively. The findings reveal patterns and particularities of postcolonial audiences' consumption of transnational media that suggest new theoretical postulates in reception research. They also highlight the mediating roles of religion, culture, ideology and other extra-communication factors in such interactions, and identify the dynamics of credibility and believability. Credibility appears to be a necessary but not sufficient condition for believability in audiences' consumption of dissonant messages. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract, edited]
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