Abstract

Nigerian filmmakers have doggedly demonstrated an uncanny ability to tell their own stories. These stories have met with diverse kinds of reception within and outside Africa. This paper is engaged with the reception of Nigerian films by an undergraduate audience. Using a survey method, it sought to disprove or reinforce popular opinion on poor narrative techniques in Nigerian films, to identify the way an audience interprets the visual and dramatic construct of the films they have seen and to key out the weightier subject between theme and technique for the sampled audience. The study found that young people are favourably disposed to the films, place more emphasis on theme rather than on technique, and are suspicious of some storytelling techniques found in the Nigerian films.

Key Words: Audience, Reception, Storytelling, Techniques and Nigerian Films

^JCMRJournal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 3, No. 2, October  2011, 65 – 81.

© Delmas Communications Ltd.

About the author

*Añuli Agina is with Pan-African University, Lagos, Nigeria

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