SOCIAL PERCEPTION OF RITUAL CONTENTS IN NOLLYWOOD MOVIES

A STUDY OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OYE-EKITI

Abstract

Youths are influenced habitually by what they see or hear whether from the internet, radio, television or through watching movies. In recent times, Nigerian film industry known as Nollywood are producing films that are full of ritual contents. This is why this research work set out to examine the social perception of the use of ritual contents in Nollywood movies, using undergraduates’ students of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti as the area of study. The research work was anchored on two theories which are cultivation theory and selective retention theory, descriptive survey design approach was employed and questionnaire was the research instruments. The undergraduates’ students of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti were used as the population for the study; total of three hundred and ninety-six students were sampled (396), 396 copies of questionnaire were administered and all were retrieved by the researcher and was used for this study. Data presentation and analysis were done using frequencies and simple percentages through the use of SPSS (25.0) version. Sixteen research questions were formulated and analysed. The result revealed that the use of ritual contents in Nollywood movies have influenced the lifestyle and mentality of the undergraduate students negatively by increasing the temptation to indulge in rituals to get rich quick and live extravagant lifestyle. The result also revealed that their exposure to ritual contents in Nollywood movies has shifted the mentality of youths from hard work to get-rich-quick syndrome. The result was discussed and the following recommendations were made that: the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) should properly monitor the censoring of films so that those films that contain ritual contents would be rated PG and should not be allowed to be streamed to the general audience, The NFVCB should also educate the film producers on the need to minimize the way they portray ritual contents in their movie, government should  sanction any producers that fails to abide by the laid down rules and regulations from NFVCB, and, parents should be involve in this change process for a safe and better society.