Lagos — Despite its deficiencies, Nollywood has been able to project a measure of Nigerian identity to the world. This is so especially today where brands have become an important form of currency in global market.

In an increasingly shrinking global village, where ideas, information and media determine not only the growth of a nation or countries today, Nigeria is locked in an often not too subtle battle for the control of those ideas and knowledge that are critical for social and economic growth. In this new world where nations and culture clash everyday, cultural forces are beginning to play a more vital role in determining the growth and economic progress of a nation. Battles may be fought for oil and other natural resources, but underneath all of this, is subtle attempt by all states in digital knowledge based on economies to sell its culture and values, believing that these at the end will decide who wins the war.

There is no doubt that we are in the information age, and faced with the challenges of globalisation. Most countries now realise that if the society is to develop, it must embrace globalisation and transform into a knowledge or information society. With globalisation, cultural boundaries will experience constant realignments.

Today, more than any other time in human history, people not only know what is going on around the world and more familiar to other cultures through multi-media such as news, radio, music, film, and internet, they often demand it as their "democratic right".

The most commonly accepted risk of globalisation will be that as more people around the world become better educated, more open-minded, more acceptable to new changes, eventually, they lose their national identities as a price of accepting globalisation, as the media reduces the presence of the national.

Global village is shrinking, according to study of communication, cultural imperialism can be said to be the imbalanced flows of media for instance film, television, music, news, and information. Obviously, it is more likely to say US imperialism. US trade policy is to free flow goods for business. As a matter of fact, US possess 60 per cent for film and 25 per cent for music worldwide.

Moreover, Hollywood films are representative of global moneymaker. Hollywood films command more than 80 per cent of western cinema. No matter how strong policy of globalisation in media will eventually remove national identities.

WHY IS CULTURE IMPORTANT?

Nollywood has created the largest platform of human and cultural interaction in Africa, to properly locate the importance of motion picture to social or cultural development; it is first important to understand that the motion picture is and always has been more than mere entertainment.

According to a famous ruling by the US Supreme Court, the motion picture "is a significant medium for the communication of ideas" and one of the most effective forms of communication yet devised by human kind. Motion picture is the vanguard of cultural expression.

With 600 million Africans increasingly engaging in the digital revolution and increasing cable access, growing African Diaspora and a thirst for alternative content, the Nigerian film industry may be poised for further growth if the right investments to improve quality of talent, production and distribution are made.

ECONOMIC IMPACT OF NOLLYWOOD

With over 180 million habitual daily viewing audiences across Africa and the Diaspora, Global Media Entertainment Outlook report commissioned by Price Waterhouse Coopers, said film industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world economy. In Nigerian film industry, after two decades of being on the doldrums has been awakened by the mixture of technology, determination and opportunity. It has in the last 15 years experienced tremendous growth in television and motion pictures. Presently, Nigerian filmmakers churn out more productions than anywhere else in the world. In 2007, 1687 movies were shot in various locations across the country, creating jobs and skills.

According to Communication for Change roundtable meeting, in Nigeria, it is estimated that the total market potential of the film industry relative to the size of the economy is over N522 billion ($2,751,562,500). The film sector intersects with several keys to economic sectors of any economy such as communications, entertainment, tourism and media industries.

Economically, film industry turns over billions and generates millions of jobs worldwide. The term "film industry" is generally used to describe an umbrella of creative industry production activities including film, television (drama and documentary), commercials, stills photography and multi-media. In Nigeria, it has been argued that film industry generates over N30 billion worth of economic activities.

Moreover, this form of "mere entertainment" called movies has been effectively used to promote products, nations and services. The most recent James Bond movie is reported to have earned nearly $100 million dollars (an amount just about equal to the estimated production cost of the film), even before the movie was released, solely from merchandising tie-ins and product placements.

As one movie industry analyst surmised, "the many business leaders around the world who make such decisions, are not so imperceptive that they would invest $100 million dollars in motion picture-related promotion for a single film without a solid basis for knowing that movies influence human behavior, at least some of the subsequent lifestyle and commercial choices of those moviegoers"

SOCIAL CHANGE

If it's accepted by business moguls driven by profit that movies can influence significantly commercial decisions and associated conduct, then its should make common sense that movies can be a potent agent for positive social change. During the colonial days, the old film units were used purely as agents for acculturation or social change. The truth is that all movies send messages of one sort or another, all movies communicate ideas. And if movies communicate ideas, and it is believed that ideas have always and will always be a significant source of motivation for human conduct, it further demonstrates the power of social change that movies have.

NEGATIVE INFLUENCE

Perhaps only the most absurd liberal would refuse to believe that as movies can help bring about positive changes in beliefs, lifestyles and behavior, they can also help cause negative changes. In Nigeria today, government, parents and consumers have cried out against the negative content of the movies. Vast majority of them contain ritual scenes, graphic violence, foul language, denigration of Nigeria, prejudicial portrayal of certain ethnic groups, and the abuse of some cherished institutions. It's important to understand that these are Nigerian films, "so we should not complain when Hollywood or the Western media does same, because we already doing enough damage to ourselves."

MEDIA LITERACY

Many children of school growing age spend most of their time watching television and films, yet there is very little understanding of the impact of the media by both children and teachers. In fact, there are perhaps only a handful of schools in the country that devote any kind of formal attention to helping students become more sophisticated media consumers. It is crucial that students appreciate, interpret, and analyse the mass media that surround them.