Nigeria, Football, and the Return of Lord Lugard

Abstract

This qualitative research investigated the meaning of the European football leagues’ domination of the Nigerian football market. It finds that the media use a frame of “Nigeria as colony” to report football. In essence, the media interpret Europe as center of modern football and Nigeria as periphery. The study uses 2 methods: (a) a frame analysis of 2 daily sports newspapers, 1 national daily newspaper, and a satellite television sports channel and (b) in-depth interviews of 10 Nigerian football fans. Each complementary method helps confirm results obtained by the other. The frame analysis discovers 4 themes and the interviews found 5 related themes. Each theme logically links to the archetype frame of Nigeria as colony. The results of the study confirm valence framing, demonstrating the impact of the frame on Nigerian sports fans.

Transnational communications, attitudes and fan identity: studying Nigeria post-media reform

“…Additionally, Onwumechili studied newspaper text and television programming and concluded that the framing of football in those media has placed European football in a positive light while the local league has become subservient. 39 Other scholars note that these images of 'superior' and 'inferior', created by transnational communications media, is reproduced by local media and co-opted by local consumers. 40 Though the studies mentioned above are qualitative, we assume that we would obtain similar results in our quantitative study.…”

“…Coverage of English football league, for instance, became rare and focused on periodic exploits of Nigerian-born footballers who migrated to England. 16 Transnational communications returned in the 1980s following several critical events. The events, each of which we will discuss in some detail in the following paragraphs, included the emergence of satellite television, pressure from both internal and external interests, eventual liberalization of the media environment and the drive of commercial interest.…”

“Too good to be true?”: US and Chinese media coverage of Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen in the 2012 Olympic Games

“…News stories can shape audience perceptions through the use of frame valence, indicating “positive or negative aspects, solutions, or treatments” (De Vreese and Boomgaarden, 2003: 362). Onwumechili (2009) noted that valenced frames in sport media can affect sports fans’ opinions; while local media consistently used the frame of Nigeria as a colony, “the fans, who continually receive framed sports information…begin to act on that frame–it becomes part of their belief system” (Onwumechili, 2009: 461).…”

Viewing the Game Textually: Online Consumption of Live Text Commentary as Alternate Spectatorship Among Nigerian Football Fans

“…A study by Repucom (2014) rated Nigeria as the most engaged football market in the world, estimating that 83% of Nigerians were interested in football, while 65% participated in the sport. Football spectatorship in Nigeria has, notably, been expounded from the prism of transnational television effects (e.g., Akindes, 2011; Onwumechili, 2009; Onwumechili & Oloruntola, 2014). There is, however, a need to extend the discourse on mediated football spectatorship in the country to a postmodern technological evolution paradigm in which online live text commentary now expands the transnational diffusion of real-time sporting actions (Sandvoss, 2004).…”