Nigeria Content Online

What is the craze
about our celebs? They are the beautiful people and we like to
photograph them, talk about them. A lot of times we are envious of them
and we love to gloat when they commit that faux pas we are so anxious
to reveal to the whole world, to show that they are human after all and
not demi-gods.

Of course, they are
not demi-gods, but they fill the pages of our tabloids with hot juicy
stuff which will elicit a great deal of reaction from audiences that
like to feast on the scandalous. Hello Magazine and The National
Enquirer are two popular entertainment tabloids that regale audiences
in the West with gossips about their celebs whom they love and love to
hate.

A look at Nigerian
Entertainment Today, a bi-weekly entertainment paper, reveals that
local publications are not that far behind. Published by Blackhouse
Media, NET, which also has an online version, shows that it has taken
serious the business of entertaining what one would presume to be its
teeming audience, given its repertoire of news.

The months of
October and November saw the paper showing every event that mattered
from Uti’s Big Brother Africa win to Silverbird’s 30th anniversary red
carpet to the 2010 Hip Hop Awards. There were side dishes too meant for
the reader to salivate on.

Tuface et al

One of these was
the exclusive on singer Tuface Idibia’s baby mama travails, an
overflogged news story which never ceases to stir. Tuface continued to
make the NET news pages in a way that showed that the storytellers and
their listeners could never tire of reading about this amazingly
talented musician.

Then there was the
controversial Mercy Johnson who was interviewed via a phone call and we
got a little bored because there didn’t seem to be anything newsworthy
on that end except perhaps you might call asking her about the first
time she had sex newsworthy. Or maybe the very telling picture spread.

Going on to better
prospect, NET interviewed Femi Kuti and we got to read about the
newsworthy Afrobeat Legend cum social activist, Fela Kuti. There was
also talk about the Fela play on Broadway and how Femi had insisted
that the show be brought to Lagos.

Obviously without
much baiting from NET, Femi went on to disclose his misgivings about
the marriage institution, no thanks to his own highly publicised failed
marriage. Can of worms, that one, but the NET crew was wise to leave
well alone.

There were snippets
of gossips; sometimes laden with sarcasm, about comedian Basket Mouth’s
recent wedding, Lagbaja’s AWOL turn, Rapper Kel’s metabolism, and some
interesting speculation about how the latest single from new teenage
act, Wizkid, titled ‘Holla At Your Boy’ may not be an original song.

But seriously

Away from all of
the salacious gossip and almost-merciless-but-spot on artist and album
reviews, NET took on more serious issues. In some cases not
intentional, but a keen eye could spot the undertones.

For instance, there
was an interview with popular Juju musician and veteran Nigerian
artist, Shina Peters (SSP), in which the he opined that the Nigerian
music industry has not attained its potential because there are no
proper structures in place for artists to be successful. The headline
which read, ‘TUFACE IS EMPTY’, could raise eyebrows except the reader
put the statement in the context of SSP’s whole interview.

Songs for votes

NET went on to
raise issues about the now popular trend of artists recording songs in
praise of politicians preparing to contest the 2011 elections. They
reinforced the thrust of their argument with a telling anecdote on the
marriage of two strange bedfellows.

It was a long story
for an entertainment tabloid, but rightly so if the future of the arts
in the country is to be taken seriously. There was one
attention-catcher though, which one wonders could have caught the
attention of readers. It may be entertaining for some, but the column
tagged ‘Diary of a Mischievous Lagos Girl’ (MLG) only reveals explicit
details of the writer’s sexual escapades; leaving one wondering about
the rationale behind this particular column and its benefit to the
reader, if it was intended for there to be any.

Besides that, for a
perceptive reader who is ready to pounce on the littlest trace of
innuendo, this column could ruffle a number of feathers. It’s left for
NET to decide whether what seems to give off a whiff of smut has become
just too much entertainment or not.

For some reason,
some of the undated editions left one with an overwhelming feeling of
curiosity and sense of being in the dark. For a tabloid meant to
entertain and carry readers along this could be a minus. Would it
therefore be out of place to say, “If it’s newsy it should be dated?”

Nonetheless, NET reports reveal that the publication has some
standing in the entertainment industry. Witty writing, though, with
some much-needed typo checks, is a plus for NET, as it indicates that
the writers are not the run-off-the-mill types who are just as
depthless as some aspects of the world they portray.