From Screens to Separation: Media Consumption, Communication Patterns, and the Media Normalization of Divorce in Nigeria

Oyindoubra Timi-Wood

doi:10.56201/rjmcit.vol.12.no1.2025.pg33.48

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From Screens to Separation: Media Consumption, Communication Patterns, and the Media Normalization of Divorce in Nigeria

Oyindoubra Timi-Wood

Abstract

The increasing visibility of divorce in Nigerian society has coincided with profound changes in media consumption and interpersonal communication patterns. While divorce was historically stigmatized within dominant cultural and religious frameworks, contemporary media environments particularly television, film, social media, and online advice platforms have contributed to new narratives around marriage, intimacy, and separation. This study interrogates the role of media in shaping the discursive conditions through which divorce is increasingly perceived as socially acceptable, or normalized, in Nigeria. The objective of this paper is to examine how media consumption influences marital communication patterns and contributes to the media normalization of divorce. Specifically, it explores the relationship between mediated representations of marriage and divorce, everyday spousal communication, and shifting attitudes toward marital dissolution in Nigeria. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative research design, combining discourse and framing analysis of selected Nigerian media texts including television programmes, films, radio talk shows, and social media content with thematic analysis of audience-oriented communication narratives. Media ecology and framing theory provide the analytical framework for understanding how repeated representations and advice-oriented media formats shape relational expectations and communicative behaviors. The findings indicate that contemporary Nigerian media increasingly frame divorce as a legitimate response to marital dissatisfaction, emphasizing individual fulfillment, emotional well- being, and personal agency. These narratives, when repeatedly consumed, intersect with marital communication practices by reshaping expectations, lowering tolerance for conflict, and redefining separation as an acceptable outcome rather than a social failure. The study further finds that advice-driven media spaces function as surrogate marital c

Keywords

media normalization; divorce; marital communication; media consumption; Nigeria; family and media studies E-ISSN 2545-529x

References

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From Screens to Separation: Media Consumption, Communication Patterns, and the Media Normalization of Divorce in Nigeria

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