RESEARCH/ PROJECT 2.3
APPROPRIATION AND DIFFUSION OF NIGERIAN MEDIA AND MEDIA PRODUCTION IN KINSHASA (DR CONGO) IN THE CONTEXT OF LINGUISTIC AND SOCIO-CULTURAL CHANGE
Our project on practices and mechanisms of appropriation and dissemination of popular culture between Nigeria and the DR Congo explores change in linguistic and socio-cultural lifeworlds of cultural entrepreneurs in Kinshasa and its diasporan contexts. Reception of media content, positioning in the media industry, and perception of gender and queerness are key processes for the changes in the respective lifeworlds.
The reception of Nigerian music, literature, films and comics and the channels and mechanisms of their dissemination in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa and its diaspora are the focus of our project. We examine how the contexts of changing practices of dissemination and use of Nigerian media content, especially in digital formats, have contributed to language change (affecting the widely spoken Bantu language Lingala and the official language French) and to socio-cultural shifts in the representation of social relations, gender, and queerness. We are interested in exploring meta-linguistic utterances, narratives, and biographical self-testimonials that position actors and consumers in the media sector in specific ways and serve as self-ascriptions of identity in a changing industry.
In our project context, we ask, among other questions: Have Nigerian and Congolese actors in visual, auditory, and audiovisual media productions created bidirectional and transregional spaces of contact and exchange – and if so, in which media fields? To what extent have media productions – styles, characters, and linguistic expressions – from Congo shaped the Nigerian market, and to what extent do the dynamics of media productions in both countries share certain commonalities and rooted histories? How have Nigerian films contributed to a change in (media) culture in Kinshasa, and what linguistic-cultural influences has this triggered (including in Congolese cinema/series productions)? Has the collaboration of musicians from both countries creating music in Lingala and English contributed to changing patterns of language use, i.e., new styles, expressions in youth language, and musicians' lyrics, as practices of appropriation – and does it have implications for the increasing anglicization of a Francophone media industry? (How) are perceptions and representations of gender and queerness changing due to the processes of transregionalization and digitalization? How does increasing representative power of female and queer media producers relate to media roles, online body representations, evaluations, and attributions of engendered contexts in the media sector?
The reception of Nigerian music, literature, films and comics and the channels and mechanisms of their dissemination in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa and its diaspora are the focus of our project. We examine how the contexts of changing practices of dissemination and use of Nigerian media content, especially in digital formats, have contributed to language change (affecting the widely spoken Bantu language Lingala and the official language French) and to socio-cultural shifts in the representation of social relations, gender, and queerness. We are interested in exploring meta-linguistic utterances, narratives, and biographical self-testimonials that position actors and consumers in the media sector in specific ways and serve as self-ascriptions of identity in a changing industry.
In our project context, we ask, among other questions: Have Nigerian and Congolese actors in visual, auditory, and audiovisual media productions created bidirectional and transregional spaces of contact and exchange – and if so, in which media fields? To what extent have media productions – styles, characters, and linguistic expressions – from Congo shaped the Nigerian market, and to what extent do the dynamics of media productions in both countries share certain commonalities and rooted histories? How have Nigerian films contributed to a change in (media) culture in Kinshasa, and what linguistic-cultural influences has this triggered (including in Congolese cinema/series productions)? Has the collaboration of musicians from both countries creating music in Lingala and English contributed to changing patterns of language use, i.e., new styles, expressions in youth language, and musicians' lyrics, as practices of appropriation – and does it have implications for the increasing anglicization of a Francophone media industry? (How) are perceptions and representations of gender and queerness changing due to the processes of transregionalization and digitalization? How does increasing representative power of female and queer media producers relate to media roles, online body representations, evaluations, and attributions of engendered contexts in the media sector?
RESEARCH METHODS
In our project, we combine digital ethnographic methods (analyzing social media content, i.e., Instagram content, online diffusion and reception of Lingala-French-English communication, linguistic-anthropological perspectives on representations of queerness etc.) with ethnographic fieldwork on the ground in the megacities of Lagos and Kinshasa. We interview producers and consumers of the media industryies and are interested in their biographies, their self-reflections within and about the media industries, and we explore the semiotic infrastructures of media communication and their linguistic and cultural meanings.
