Transnational Nigerian Media and the Construction of Diaspora Identity: A Comparative Study

This study develops an original theoretical framework for understanding how transnational Nigerian media constructs, maintains, and transforms diaspora identity among Nigerians living in the United Kingdom, United States, and South Africa, contributing to diaspora communication theory, identity theory, and transnational media studies. Nigerian diaspora communities are among the world's most significant, and their relationship to Nigerian media is shaped by complex negotiations between homeland attachment, host country integration, digital connectivity, and the globalisation of Nigerian cultural production through Nollywood and Afrobeats. This study employs a comparative qualitative methodology conducting 84 in-depth interviews with Nigerian diaspora members across the three host countries, combined with digital ethnographic observation of diaspora media consumption and production practices across YouTube, Instagram, and WhatsApp groups over 18 months, and media text analysis of 40 Nigerian diaspora-targeted media products including magazines, YouTube channels, and podcasts. The theoretical framework integrates transnationalism theory, diasporic identity theory, and media and migration scholarship. Findings reveal divergent diaspora identity construction trajectories across the three host contexts, with UK Nigerian diaspora showing the strongest homeland cultural maintenance through media, US Nigerian diaspora demonstrating the most complex hyphenated identity construction through media, and South Africa-based Nigerian diaspora showing the most defensive identity assertion through media in response to Afrophobic hostility. The study contributes an original transnational Nigerian diaspora media identity framework and recommends diaspora media programming investment as a cultural maintenance tool for Nigerian foreign policy.

Keywords: transnational media, Nigerian diaspora, identity construction, diaspora communication, comparative study.