Nollywood video film’s impact on Nigerian and other African environments and cultures

Abstract

Abstract This article examines how Nollywood video films impact Nigerian and other African cultures and environments by connecting an oral culture such as Nigeria quickly through the literate phase to membership in the global village. It also contributes to McLuhan’s hot–cool model by applying it to Nollywood video films, which is complex because the term ‘video film’ connotes a combination of cool (i.e., television) and hot (i.e., cinema) media. Applying the hot–cool model to Nollywood productions suggests that quick and cheap productions are likely to distort African environments and cultures negatively, unlike the well-planned and larger budget productions that are likely to be made on celluloid. Finally, this article explicates two Nollywood video films in order to ascertain how the Nigerian and other African environments and cultures are impacted in light of the complexity of hot and cool media. The article concludes that quick productions are better viewed and decoded via a cool medium, while well-planned productions are better viewed and decoded via either a hot or a cool medium.