PERCEIVED INFLUENCE OF NOLLYWOOD MOVIES ON SOCIAL LIFE: A STUDY OF WOMEN IN ILORIN SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, KWARA STATE

Abstract

There is a general notion that viewing violent, ritual killing and undeserved affluence-oriented movies on television increases aggression as well as affect the behaviour of the viewers. This is because film has a dramatic effect on the perception of viewers whether they are conscious or unconscious of this fact. Media scholars have also contended the fact that the media have great potentials in hindering women’s progress by under or misrepresenting them through messages presented in various media genres. While men are presented as the “normal” majority of the society, women are seen as the “minority”, the “others”, “the exception”, “the incomplete”, “the damaged”, “the marginal”, and sometimes even “the bizarre.” As there are notable difference in the presentation of roles men and women play in Nigerian home videos which belong to the Nollywood family; women appear in dependent roles such as wife or mother of someone more often than men, while the men more often appear in professional positions with dominance and always having the upper hand (Uchenne, Allen, & Uche, 2015).This study therefore, attempts to find out how Nigerian women interpret the images they see in Nollywood movies, if what women view in Nollywood movies are responsible for increase in violence in social life, uncontrolled desire for a life of affluence and ritual killings in the society. This study also established if some of the themes in Nollywood movies are true reflection of what goes on in our society. Drawing a sample of 250 from the population of study, survey method was adopted and the study found out that women’s exposure to Nollywood movies does not predict social life as being occultic but presents social life as patriarchal. It however, recommended that the image of women should be portrayed positively in movies to reflect how women should be perceived and treated in the society.