THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF MEDIA LANGUAGE: AN APPRAISAL OF THE USE OF ENGLISH AND YORUBA LANGUAGES IN NIGERIAN MEDIA

Abstract

This article examined the contention for media space and use between the English language, the lingua franca in a plural and multicultural society like Nigeria, and Yoruba, the traditional indigenous language used for communication by a particular ethnic group that occupy the Western region of Nigeria. The article contended and invariably concluded that the only justification for the continued hegemonic privileges that the English language continually enjoys in the Nigerian mass media, despite the use of mother tongue campaign in the media, is the fact that it is the language of the political and social elites, and primarily because it makes more
commercial sense. The piece also acknowledged the ascendancy of the Yoruba language in the media, particularly in the home region and noted how the activities of certain media practitioners threaten to deny this genre of communication its inalienable reciprocal quality.