The Effect of Violent Film on Nigeria Female Children
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives Of The Study
The study’s main goal is to determine the impact of violent films on young Nigerian females. The following are the study’s particular goals:
- The purpose of this study was to determine the harmful consequences of viewing violent films on female youngsters.
- To learn more about how violent films influence female children’s behavior.
- To provide recommendations for reducing the harmful impact of violent films on Nigerian female youngsters.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Overview of Film
The history of film is one that many scholars have said to be not only broad but also multidimensional. The history of film reaches as far back as ancient Greece’s theatre and dance, which had many of the same elements in today’s film world (Envisage International Corporation, 2018). According to McQuail(2004), film began at the end of the nineteenth century as a technological novelty, but what it offered was scarcely new in content or function. It transferred to a new means of presentation and distribution an older tradition of entertainment, offering stories, spectacles, music, drama, humour and technical tricks for popular consumption (p. 32). Soon film as a medium gained popular acceptance. From classical Greek plays performed live in ancient amphitheatres and five-cent machines at carnivals, flashing images that created the illusion of a dancing nude, to our modern digital technology and special effects(Envisage International Corporation, 2018), film has evolved into one of the most widely consumed media content today. In an attempt at explaining the process of adapting from reality into dramatic performances which gave rise to modern film, Metz (1974),wrote that film“tells us continuous stories; it ‘says’ things that could be conveyed also in the language of words; yet it says them differently. There is a reason for the possibility as well as for the necessity of adaptations.” This reason Hutcheon(2003), in her work titled From Page to Stage to Screen: The Age of Adaptation went forward to explain that, “when we adapt, we create, using all the tools that creators have always used: we actualize or concretize ideas; we make simplifying selections but we also amplify and extrapolate; we make analogies; we critique or show our respect. When we do all this, does it matter whether the narrative we are working with is “new” or adapted? Our post-Romantic valuing of the original is, after all, a late addition to a long history of borrowing and stealing–or, more accurately, of sharing stories” (p.40). Film is therefore seen as an adaptation from reality. According to (Hutcheon, 2003), Gombrich offers us a very useful analogy. Gombrich suggests that if an artist stands before a landscape with a pencil in hand, he or she will “look for those aspects which can be rendered in lines”; if it is a paintbrush that the hand holds, the artist’s vision of the same landscape will be in terms of “masses ” instead… The linear and single-track medium of language will produce a different version than the multitrack film, with its amalgam of music, sound, and moving visual image (p.43). Thus, film becomes a clear reproduction of society serving our need for diversion and at the same time transmitting values and beliefs that can in turn help to shape our actions in society. This is “because it (film) embodies and conveys the values and beliefs of the culture within which and for which it is made. Popular art forms, such as film, are of special importance because they speak to the most central of those values and beliefs (Auger, na).Film continues to provide audiences and the individual spectator with incomparable opportunities to experience imaginatively the lives of others, which can only affect and enrich us, making us more rounded individuals by such encounters(Mactaggart, na). Therefore, the exposure, especially of children to film can be seen as a process of acculturation – behaviour building.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, we described the research procedure for this study. A research methodology is a research process adopted or employed to systematically and scientifically present the results of a study to the research audience viz. a vis, the study beneficiaries.
RESEARCH DESIGN
Research designs are perceived to be an overall strategy adopted by the researcher whereby different components of the study are integrated in a logical manner to effectively address a research problem. In this study, the researcher employed the survey research design. This is due to the nature of the study whereby the opinion and views of people are sampled. According to Singleton & Straits, (2009), Survey research can use quantitative research strategies (e.g., using questionnaires with numerically rated items), qualitative research strategies (e.g., using open-ended questions), or both strategies (i.e., mixed methods). As it is often used to describe and explore human behaviour, surveys are therefore frequently used in social and psychological research.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
According to Udoyen (2019), a study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitutes of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description.
This study was carried to examine the effect of violent film on Nigeria female children. Selected household in Ojo local government area forms the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the analysis of data derived through the questionnaire and key informant interview administered on the respondents in the study area. The analysis and interpretation were derived from the findings of the study. The data analysis depicts the simple frequency and percentage of the respondents as well as interpretation of the information gathered. A total of eighty (80) questionnaires were administered to respondents of which only seventy-seven (77) were returned and validated. This was due to irregular, incomplete and inappropriate responses to some questionnaire. For this study a total of 77 was validated for the analysis.
H1: there is harmful consequences of viewing violent films on female youngsters.
HYPOTHESIS 2
H0: violent films do not influence female children’s behavior.
H1: violent films influence female children’s behavior
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain the effect of violent film on Nigeria female children. In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of violent film on Nigeria female children
Summary
This study was on the effect of violent film on Nigeria female children. Four objectives were raised which included; The purpose of this study was to determine the harmful consequences of viewing violent films on female youngsters, to learn more about how violent films influence female children’s behavior and to provide recommendations for reducing the harmful impact of violent films on Nigerian female youngsters. A total of 77 responses were received and validated from the enrolled participants where all respondents were drawn from selected household in Oshodi-Isolo. Hypothesis was tested using Chi-Square statistical tool (SPSS).
Conclusion
Drawing from the purpose of this study and the data collected from the respondents, it can therefore be asserted that exposure to movie violence does not necessarily lead to violent behaviour in children. Also, the factors that lead to exposure to violent films are parental typologies such that those who live with both parents have a higher tendency of being exposed to movies violence and children who watch movies with friends have a higher tendency of being exposed to movies violence. The lack of alternative and the desire for thrills are also other factors that influence a child’s decision to watch movies with violence.
Recommendation
- Children should be guided and listened to when it comes to time to select movies to watch.
- Parents should ensure that children are not always exposed to the same movies that they the parents are viewing as this will help to reduce the exposure of the children to movie violence.
- Children should be given wider options of films to select from.
- Films should be properly tagged or rated within the home to signify the presence of violent contents in order to preempt children as they go searching for what to watch.
- Parents and guardians should be mindful of the company their children and ward keep so as to reduce the chance of high exposure to violence in film due to suggestions by friends.
References
- Çitak, G. G. (2009). Constructing an Attitude Scale: Attitudes toward Violence on Televisions . International Journal of Social, Behavioral, Educational, Economic, Business and Industrial Engineering, 3 (7), 1391-1396.
- Allan, B. (2016, May 31). Nigeria Data Portal – Nigeria populain by Age and Sex. Retrieved September 12, 2018, from Open Data Africa: www.nigeria.opendataforafrica.org
- American Academy of Pediatrics – Committee on Communications. (1995). Media violence. Pediatrics, 6, 949-951.
- American Acedemy of Family Physicians. (2006). Violence in the Media and Entertainment (Position Paper). Retrieved September 6, 2018, from AAFP: https://www.aafp.org/about/policies/all/violence-media.html
- Anderson, C. A. (2000). Violent Video Games Increase Aggression and Violence. U.S. Senate Commerce Committee hearing on “The Impact of Interactive Violence on Children. Washington: U.S. Senate. Auger, E. E. (na). Noir Again? (M. Yazdani, Ed.) Film: Why Does Film Matter? , pp. 10-11.
