Socio-Political Reading of Nigerians' Criticisms and Commendations of Big Brother Nigeria (BBN) Shows

ABSTRACT

Popular cultures constitute the predominant attitudes, living styles, and aspirations practised consciously and unconsciously by the people in a society. They emanate from the admixture of indigenous practices and foreign media influences that permeate the people's ways of life. Sometimes, popular cultures can be regarded as youth cultures. In Nigeria in recent times, Big Brother Nigeria (BBN), a TV reality show franchise that started in 2006, has continued to draw criticisms and commendations from Nigerian citizens at home and abroad. Concerned citizens have drummed up various arguments and counter-arguments with regard to issues emanating from BBN show. Nevertheless, it continues to be produced such that it was even produced during the COVID-19 lockdown in the country. Therefore, this paper is interested in the arguments that people advanced for the cancellation or continuation of BBN shows in the Nigerian media landscape. It will investigate the socio-political implications considered by the Nigerian government through its regulatory bodies not to cancel the TV show. Its findings will be compared with the agenda-setting and social responsibility theories of the mass media. As an explorative study, it will rely on secondary data. It is hoped that the study will contribute to the literature on popular cultures and related fields. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023.