Truth, Nothing but the Performative Truth

Abstract

Both colonialism and cultural imperialism have impacted considerably on broadcast media in Africa. News broadcast in indigenous language in Nigeria especially has been attuned to reproduce the Anglo-American model that polarizes “seriousness” and “objectivity/truth,” on the one hand, and entertainment and the performative, on the other; the former is then valuated above the latter. One noticeable result of this dominant trend is a news broadcast culture that communicates in a strange language. There is, however, an emerging practice of reviewing English-language newspapers on radio, using Yoruba language. This article examines the performativity imperative in the movement from one medium and language to another (from newspaper to radio, and English language to Yoruba). Through observation, interview and survey, it was found that a majority of the audience considers the performative style of the newspaper review more satisfactory than that of the serious news. As repelling as it is to listenership, however, serious news tradition is observed to be so influential in broadcast practice that the performative news claims conformity to it in order to legitimate itself.

KEYWORDS:

• broadcast media
• newspaper review
• performativity
• Yoruba language

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).