Globalisation, Cultural Identity and the Dependency

GLOBALISATION, CULTURAL IDENTITY AND THE DEPENDENCY SYDROME: THE PRODUCTION AND AIRING OF BIG BROTHER NAIJA (BBN) IN SOUTH AFRICA ABSTRACT The concept of globalization has increasingly become a topical issue in discourse involving international communication. The advent of the Internet, new media technologies and inter- country media systems have greatly aided the compression of the globe and drastically reduced the barrier of space and time. A very crucial feature of this globalized era is the increased exchange of media products and cultural content among countries. However, scholars have pointed out the spate of inequality in global information flow. The new world information and communication order tends to be in favour of the developed countries to the detriment of the developing ones. This is manifested in the spate of media dependency for content and technology on developed spheres of the globe by the developing ones. The technological development of the Northern hemisphere gives them ample opportunity for massive production of media content which are massively exported to the southern hemisphere. The implication of this is the high exposure to the culture of the developed nations, because media content carries with it the culture of where it was produced. The high exposure tends to bring about cultural crisis in the developing nations with people preferring the constantly mediated culture to the indigenous culture. The Big Brother Naija reality TV show was recently produced and aired in South Africa. Even though it was a Nigeria-based show, the sponsor chose South Africa as a result of quality infrastructure that would guarantee quality delivery. This paper argued that this occurrence was a sign of media dependency which is partly aided by technological divide between nations. Also, the content of the show was condemned by many Nigerians who claimed that it did not represent the cultural identity of the country. This did not exclude Nigerians that overtly supported the show. This paper argued that those who condemned the show were those who have not been wholly overwhelmed by globalization, while the Nigerians that actively participated in the show have been culturally radicalized by globalization. This assertion was based on the scholarly argument that globalization creates global consciousness in people, and this is sometimes to the detriment of local consciousness. Since many Nigerians have been exposed to Big Brother America which was the template adopted for the Big Brother Naija, we argued that the prior exposure to the former was instrumental to the acceptance of the latter by some Nigerians. The paper concluded by noting that the role of globalization and media dependency on indigenous cultural identity cannot be over-emphasized. It then recommended the need for aggressive cultural promotion by the Nigerian media, the government and other relevant stakeholders so as to ensure cultural sustainability in the country. Keywords: globalization. media dependency, cultural identity, imperialism, Internet, Mass media INTRODUCTION Culture is the totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects and behaviour. It includes the ideas, value, customs and artefacts of a group of people (Schaefer, 2002). It is a pattern of human activities and the symbols that give these activities significance. It is what people eat, how they dress, beliefs they hold and activities they engage in. It is the totality of the way of life evolved by a people in their attempts to meet the challenges of living in their environment, which gives order and meaning to their social, political, economic, aesthetic and religious norms and modes of organisation thus distinguishing people from their neighbours. The process of expanding culture has been under way for many centuries, but technologies have increased the speed and have also broadened the distribution of cultural elements beyond communities and nations’ territorial frontiers. The advent of new media technologies and the soaring wave of globalization have led to the compression of the globe, thereby fostering inter-cultural exchange through the mass media. Akande (2002) has observed that globalization has brought about increased global consciousness on the people. Hence, the thoughts of individuals are being shaped to reflect mediated global realities which are sometimes to the detriment of indigenous cultural realities. This is in line with the assertion of Umeogu (2013) who noted that as regards identity, globalization has contributed to the alienation of individuals from their traditions. Identity here is all about cultural identity; what distinguishes one culture from another. It can be seen as the traits, characteristics, qualities, beliefs that make a group stand out among many. Ogugua (2007) in Ogugua & Oduah (2007) submitted that “culture is a mark of identity; it separates man from the animals and at the same time divides societies … globalization distorts the culture, changing people’s pattern of editing, dressing, talking etc.” There is also the case of media dependency which has become a recurring decimal in discourse on international communication. This connotes the reliance of developing nations like Nigeria on the developed western nations for media content and media technologies. Media dependency has been described as apt complement to globalization in usurping the cultural values and identities of developing nations. Recently, the reality TV Show tagged Big Brother Naija (BBN), a Nigeria-oriented show was produced and aired in South Africa due to the presence of quality equipment needed for quality production and broadcasting in South Africa. Also, the show sparked wide condemnation among Nigerians due to the argued absence of symmetry between what the show represented and the cultural and moral ideals of the Nigerian societies. This paper is thus an attempt at examining globalization and media dependency in relations to their effects on Nigerian cultural identity using the Big Brother Naija reality TV show as the point of reference. THE CONCEPT OF GLOBALIZATION Giddens (1996) once stated that there are few terms that we use so frequently but which are in fact as poorly conceptualized as globalization. Probably in support of this observation, Scholte (2002:3) opines that every study of globalization should include a careful and critical definition of the word itself. He believes that a “muddled or misguided core concept compromises overall comprehension of a problem while a sharp and revealing definition promotes insightful, interesting and empowering knowledge, and also an understanding that helps us to shape our destiny in positive direction”. He studied most of the existing definitions of globalisation and came to the conclusion that they are parochial and deficient because they define globalisation as being the same as internationalization, liberalization, universalization, or westernisation. Globalization contains elements of the four concepts mentioned above but cannot rightly be defined exclusively in terms of any of them. Definitions abound in the literature of globalisation and they vary depending on who is defining and the perspective from which the person is defining. According to Amiuwu (2004), definitions of globalisation could be institutional/organisational; process, system or value driven, ideological or a combination of some or all of the above. Having reviewed a considerable number of definitions of the topic, it is the position of this paper that the two definitions below are the most suitable for the purpose of this paper. The first is that proffered by the bank of industry which sees globalisation as the closer integration of countries and peoples of the world and the breaking down of artificial barriers to the flow of goods, services, capital, knowledge and people across national borders; a process of creating a global market of investments, trade and information through the integration of economic decision making on consumption, investment and savings across the world (Bank of Industry 2004:1) and the second one by Onyeonoru (2003:37) which sees globalisation as the intensification of world-wide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice-versa. According to Abubakar (2003:15-19), universality is a major feature of globalisation and an issue, object, value, institution or practice is globalized if either through commerce, production, consumption, politics and information technology, it is visible or considered relevant in global centres. In other words, globalisation entails universalization whereby the objective, practices or even values transcend geopolitical boundaries, penetrating the hitherto sovereign nation state and impacting the orientation and value system of the people. According to Scholte (2002: 4), the term “globalization was not coined until the second half of the twentieth century”. Amiuwu (2004: 18-28) believes that the term was first coined in the 1980s. Some scholars however believe that the origin of globalisation dates back to the period between 1450-1500AD which was characterized by the development of trade in the quest for commercial empires to broaden their markets. This period is usually referred to as the mercantilist period (Adejo 2003). Amiwu (2004:19) observes that the transatlantic slave trade presents the saddest image of globalisation through the ages and that the current form of manifestation

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