2018/11/01 by Rotimi Fasan
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Discourse Analysis in Language Studies #Media Studies and Communication #Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0001972018000499
crossref issued 2018/11/01 · crossref published 2018/11/01 · crossref published-print 2018/11/01 · openalex publication_date 2018/11/01 · crossref published-online 2018/11/07 · crossref created 2018/11/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref deposited 2026/04/04 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/03 · crossref indexed 2026/07/29
Abstract Nigerian newspapers, like newspapers elsewhere, are often established as part of the apparatus for the extension of personal or group interests, to mobilize and contest meaning in the overall project of constructing hegemony in an ethnically fractious polity. In this article, I trace the emergence of Alaroye , the best-known Yoruba-language newspaper today, by identifying its survival strategies and stabilization against the changing circumstances of a hostile environment. The article aims to demonstrate that, in challenging the oppressive activities of a military dictatorship led by the Hausa-Fulani and a media market dominated by English-language newspapers, Alaroye has been able to negotiate its existence within the contested space that is Yorubaland in particular and Nigeria at large. In this state of contestation and fierce competition, tabloidization has been central to Alaroye ’s success, making it a leader whose example is being closely emulated by other Yoruba-language newspapers. Following from this, the article discusses the genres of Alaroye and the newspaper's genre-blurring innovations, including its oral written style, all of which point to its transformation into a tabloid, against the background of its initial failure at the newsstand and the factors responsible for its revitalization and stabilization after three failed attempts.