Media

What role does media evolution play in our understanding of authorship? And how do we conceptualize new media authors? This chapter takes us to the production studios of Nollywood in Nigeria, which, because of its size, level of specialization, and, most importantly, the speed at which it operates, is perhaps best approached as an incubator that creates a hothouse atmosphere around artistic and social pressures—pressures that are also present in Western media centres. Emerging from this environment is the ‘super-producer’. In this formidable rival to the literary author, Ukwu detects a modern-day version of the griot, the traditional African storytellers who similarly earned acclaim through their ability to adapt and improvise stories, rather than by the process of ‘authoring’ them.