RECIPROCAL PLATFORM LABOUR IN THE NIGERIAN SOCIAL MEDIA VIDEO INDUSTRY

Resumen

This paper explores how content creators in the Nigerian social media video industry navigate the economic, infrastructural, and cultural logics of digital platforms through practices of reciprocal labour. As is the case in many global contexts, the economic formalization of social media platforms, such as YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok, have enabled the emergence of for-profit social media video production in Nigeria. This paper focuses on the under-studied intersection of platform logics and labour relations in this industry. Drawing on 10 semi-structured interviews with Nigerian content creators, combined with analysis of the domestic trade press, we observe that creators struggle to generate visibility in a highly saturated social media landscape. This visibility imperative is not unique to Nigeria. What sets Nigeria apart, however, is the local political economy of video production, which translates into high production costs, which are offset by orchestrating practices of informally organised reciprocal labour. Nigeria thus provides a relevant perspective to ongoing debates in platform research that seek more regional specificity and seek to decentre the Global North as their point of reference. To heed that call, the specific labour practices we highlight, those of reciprocal labour, reflect the broader informal economies and traditional kinship norms in Nigeria. Exploring this mode of work showcases the intersections among creative labour and cultural dynamics in a given national context vis-à-vis the unifying business models and centralized governance frameworks of platform companies.