The Political Economy of Indigenous Language Media: An Evaluation of Orisun 89.5 FM, Ile-Ife Osun State, Nigeria

Colonialism of African States happened to be a major reason for the present media and language landscape in Africa. Scholars and communication theorists have also maintained that electronic media are helping out in respect to the utilization of indigenous language in their broadcast which is in a way to decolonise the hegemony of foreign languages. Indigenous language broadcast stations are springing up by the day. However, as this may present an advantage, it is expedient to evaluate the political economy of the stations. This study therefore interrogated the political economy of indigenous language media with a focus on a core indigenous language radio station in Nigeria premised on the fact that there are scanty empirical documentation on broadcast media and evaluation of indigenous language media. The study purposefully surveyed the available 25 staffers and three listeners of Orisun 89.1 FM. The study engaged mixed method of qualitative and quantitative approaches with two research questions to give direction to the study. The results revealed that Orisun FM was established to achieve some language and cultural development objectives which included the projection of the Yoruba cultural heritage, revitalizing the Yoruba language, much more importantly projecting the image of the state government and generation of revenue for Osun State government. The study recommended that despite the good work being done by the station and its management in respect to language revitalisation, there is the need to draw a thin line between its social responsibility and the need to generate income for its proprietor.