Television in contemporary urban life: Benin City, Nigeria

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Abstract
During 1983 and 1984 the author and her husband conducted a study of the impact of the mass media on the daily lives of the inhabitants of Benin City, Nigeria. The investigators studied television, radio, the press, and popular literature, employing a mixture of ethnographic and sociological methodologies, though a heavy stress on television was dictated by informants’ preferences for that medium, itself a finding of the study. This author was especially interested in the effects of mass communications on family life, and this paper concerns a rapid privatization of life in Benin, which has accompanied the penetration of television into the local mass market. Informants drew connections between television and significant changes in domestic life, including more private living patterns and changes in the structure of domestic authority. These changes were also reflected in a significant amount of media content. Increased urban privacy had important methodological consequences for the researchers, which are discussed in the paper.

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