Nigeria's Digital Diaspora: Citizen Media, Democracy, and Participation

Over a decade ago, when Nigeria's migratory digital elite in the United States pioneered a newfangled form of online citizen journalism that disrupted the certainties of legacy journalism, the country's professional journalists assumed that this amateur insurgency would be transitory. Instead, it was transformative. Diasporic online citizen journalism is now not only an integral part of Nigeria's media ecosystem, it has also inspired successful homeland emulators and is challenging, even in some cases supplanting, traditional media in the nation's democratic discourse. Within the frenetic and deeply engaged social media scene, diasporic citizen journalism, homeland news, and social media activism are merging to create the most energetic moment in Nigeria's media history. Nigeria's Digital Diaspora chronicles the emergence and transformation of this diasporic citizen journalism from the margins to the mainstream of the country's journalistic landscape. Farooq A. Kperogi is Associate Professor of Journalism and Emerging Media at Kennesaw State University, Georgia, USA. He is a columnist for the Nigerian Tribune and blogs at https://www.farooqkperogi.com/