Postcolonial Media Theory and the Construction of Nigerian Identity in Global Media Platforms

This study develops an original postcolonial media theory framework for understanding how Nigerian identity is constructed, contested, and negotiated on global media platforms including YouTube, Netflix, and international streaming services, critically examining the power relationships embedded in global media circulation. Nigeria's growing global cultural presence through Afrobeats, Nollywood, and digital content creation has positioned Nigerian cultural producers as significant agents in global media, yet this presence operates within systems of platform governance, algorithmic curation, and international capital that reproduce colonial power asymmetries in new forms. This study employs a multi-method critical approach combining discourse analysis of 120 Nigerian cultural products on global platforms, political economy analysis of platform terms, revenue sharing arrangements, and content governance policies affecting Nigerian creators, interviews with 28 Nigerian content creators and cultural industry professionals navigating global platforms, and audience reception analysis through focus groups in Nigeria and in the Nigerian diaspora in the UK and US. The theoretical framework synthesises postcolonial theory, platform studies, and African cultural theory. Findings reveal that Nigerian cultural producers exercise significant creative agency within global platforms while simultaneously being subject to algorithmic invisibility, payment inequities, and content moderation biases that disproportionately affect African creators. Diaspora Nigerian audience reception diverges from Nigerian domestic reception in ways that reveal transnational identity politics. The study contributes an original postcolonial platform theory and recommends advocacy for platform payment equity, algorithmic transparency, and African platform governance representation.

Keywords: postcolonial media theory, Nigerian identity, global platforms, cultural production, digital colonialism.