CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
Different movies produced by the film industry use formats such as video Cassette, video compact disc (VCD), and more recently the digital video disc (DVD), in producing their movies. These movies are also shown on some channels such as “Africa Magic”, Joy TV”, etc, on DSTV, “Cine Africa”, MYTV”, as well as other cable network services which people subscribe to and which are viewed by the audience through the televisions, which is also classified under the types of media, among others.
Films are evidently seen as one of the agents of socialization. This means that films are capable of influencing the attitudes, characters, lifestyle, and cultures of children either negatively or positively. Therefore, it is important to know the kinds of movies being produced for children’s viewing, since as a result of technology, more and more people in the society have access to television.
According to (Daramola, 2005: 90), “the mass media are very powerful socialization agents. The mass media are mainly newspapers, magazines, radio, television and movies. They are impersonal sources and they reach large heterogeneous and widely dispersed audiences. Their exact role in socialization is controversial but as disseminators of news and entertainment, they are extremely influential. The mass media therefore, especially the television, have been linked by several studies of having great influence upon socialization of children, adolescents, and even adults.
Consciously or unconsciously, people most especially children, learn different aggressive and violent acts as they constantly watch these movies and most times they end up exhibiting such acts within their neighborhood, in school and within other social gatherings. As they watch movies with violent themes, they are likely to exhibit various criminal acts like bullying, kicking, raping, and other delinquent behaviours (Oslow, 2003:73).
The themes of these movies are indeed broad and covering Nigerian, African, and universal issues such as, the evils of polygamy, extra marital affairs, elopement, different forms of rituals, cultism, betrayal, marriage, witchcraft, incest, clash of western and traditional cultures, landlords and tenants, widowhood, teenage pregnancy, drug trafficking, campus life, tribal conflicts, religious conflicts, organized crime, murder, etc. (Akpabio, 2003: 138-139).
Some other movies have themes solely based on Christianity and the evils that go on in the churches and among pastors, such as those produced by Mount Zion Ministries, for the purpose of spreading the gospel. Some examples include, “Busy but guilty”, “Blood on the alter”, “One careless Night”, etc. Many other movies could be educative and portray some Nigerian cultures, while others could also be in form of documentaries, showing the history of some Nigerian cultures as well as how it has evolved overtime. An example of such documentary movies is “towards a metaphysics”, produced in 2010. But unfortunately, the most common themes evident in the majority of Nigerian movies includes violence, which covers cultism, murder, rape, aggressive fights etc. Romance, which covers sex, nudity and vulgarity or the use of strong language, etc. Another common theme is that of rituals and the use of traditional medicine.
Most of these are evidently negative themes and are therefore, malevolent to the development of personality and behaviour of it’s audience members in our contemporary society, especially children who are still at the primary and secondary stages of their socialization or learning process, and are vulnerable or prone to picking up or adopting attitudes ands behaviours from what they observe in the movies.
The portrayal of negative themes has been the base of Nigerian film industry, probably because of the gains gotten from constant patronage from it’s audience as well as the interest the audience members have in pornography, nudity, and violence. The industry was accused of over-emphasizing negative themes. The National Film and Video Censors Board, (the industry as regulatory body), in it’s guidelines for motion picture producers, called for production to be above board in portrayal of violence, crimes, sex, pornography vulgarity, obscenity and other sensitive subjects (NFVCB, 2000:107-111).
Today, the nature of most Nigerian movies have grown or evolved from bad to worse, especially on the part of those that portray sex, pornography, violence, and vulgarity. From experience, a comparison of older films such as “Outcast 1&2” and “Night out (Girls for sale)” produced between 1999 and 2000 and most recent ones such as “Dirty secret” and “Men in love” produced between 2010 and 2011, have proven that the level of the portrayal of nudity pornography and sex has become worse than before, the actors and actresses are now more comfortable with being nude, while acting. This is definitely malevolent to children who will develop more interest in pornography and may eventually become addicts. This will not only increase the number of rape reports, but will also give rise to more and more cases of teenage pregnancies, abortion, as well as abandonment of unwanted babies which increases the number of children to be cared for at the motherless babies homes.
Therefore, in trying to find out how violent films can pose as malevolent to children in our society it is also important to find out what the members of the area think about the nature of some of the themes portrayed in home videos, as well as their attitudes towards such movies, since it directly affects their children.
Calabar South is a Local Government Area located in Cross River State, Nigeria. It’s headquarters is at Anantigha. It has an area of 264 km2 and a population of 191, 630 (based on 2006 census).
1.2 Problems of the study
If an investigation or a study is carried out on the category of people that make up the majority of audience members of Nigerian movies, the result will definitely prove that it is children and adolescents. The minority will be older people because of the responsibilities of going to work, earning a living and planning a home, which they are faced with. As the children grow and mature into adulthood, they gradually lose interest in watching movies because they begin to prioritize some things over other and also develop a sense of responsibility (Daramola, 2005).
A study by Liebert and Poulson (1972), reveals that children in Canada begin to watch television before they are three years old. By the age of eighteen, a child will have spent more time in front of the television than any where else, including school. In the United States of America, children watch over three hours of television per day.
Schaefer and Lamm (2007) study, also reveals that apart from sleeping, watching television is the most time consuming activity of young people. The same trend is going on in the Nigerian contemporary society, particularly in the Urban cities. It is very common to find children watching movies and videos everyday.
Since members of the audience of movies also constitute members of the society, and the media, especially television, violent films are also capable of influencing an individual’s behaviour especially children who are quick to learn. The negative effects of these videos will also indirectly affect the society at large. That is to say that, if children adopt some behaviours as a result of these movies, it could indirectly affect the society by creating social problems such as, increase in rape reports, abortion, over-crowding of motherless babies homes due to unwanted babies, violence, increase crime rates and juvenile delinquencies, etc.
Therefore, this study seeks to look at the effect of violent films on children in our contemporary society, by looking at the nature and content of these movies and why it is still being patronized by members of the audience despite it’s malevolent nature.