Digital disconnects? Unpacking the extent and limits of engagement with the digital TV switchover among remote rural communities in the Lagos region

Abstract

This study investigates how remote rural communities in Lagos State, Nigeria, have engaged with the government-led digital terrestrial television (DTT) switchover initiative, focusing on two Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs): Imota and Ikosi-Ejirin in Ikorodu. While the digital switchover (DSO) has been championed as a symbol of national development and a gateway to the global digital economy, this research critically examines its accessibility, inclusivity, and impact on historically marginalised rural populations. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the study combines household surveys, semi-structured interviews, and policy document analysis to capture perspectives from rural residents, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), and television service providers. The findings reveal a significant disconnect between the aspirations of the DSO and the lived realities of rural communities. Many respondents reported little or no awareness of the initiative, largely due to inadequate public communication strategies and the use of urban-centric media channels that fail to reach remote populations. This lack of awareness is compounded by infrastructural deficits, including irregular electricity supply, poor signal coverage, and insufficient technical support. Even where awareness exists, adoption is often hindered by high perceived costs, low digital literacy, and cultural dissonance. Respondents cited concerns about the loss of local-language programming, the erosion of indigenous storytelling traditions, and the dominance of homogenised, elite-driven content that fails to reflect rural realities. To conceptualise these overlapping forms of exclusion, the study introduces the intersectional digital marginalisation framework (IDMF), a diagnostic model that synthesises digital colonialism, digital poverty, information poverty, and intersectionality to explain how structural inequalities intersect with user agency. The framework is further supported by uses and gratifications theory (UGT), which highlights how media users make selective engagement decisions based on whether their informational, cultural, or social needs are met. Together, IDMF and UGT offer a multi-dimensional lens for understanding digital disengagement, not as passive neglect, but as a rational response to unmet expectations and systemic neglect. In this light, the DSO appears not as a linear path to digital inclusion, but as a process that reproduces layered exclusions along lines of geography, income, gender, language, and cultural relevance. The study concludes that a successful digital transition must move beyond infrastructure-focused metrics to embrace community engagement, cultural inclusion, and equity-driven design. Key policy recommendations include targeted multilingual awareness campaigns, rural infrastructure investment, subsidies for low-income households, stronger regulatory accountability, and the protection of local content. Ultimately, the study calls for a critical reimagining of digital inclusion as a socio-cultural and political process, one that recognises rural users not as passive recipients, but as active agents shaping their digital futures.