Int. J. Adv. Res. 8(02), 433-442 ISSN: 2320-5407 Int. J. Adv. Res. 8(02), 433-442 438 misinform and influence depending on the very human hand it finds itself. In the sophisticated nature of today"s film technology, in the very hand of the West who were the inventors and first producers as well as colonizers, the African colony (Nigeria not an exception) has been misinformed and projected to the world in a particular light. This has influenced both the citizens and the world in their perceptions about the countries) and colony.
Methodology:-
Research Design:This research employed a qualitative research method, particularly Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Key Informant Interview (KII) to mirror Nigeria"s past through the issues of imperialism, ethnicity, religion and military rule in the movies October 1 and 76.
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA):Critical discourse analysts are said to go beyond the immediate, serious or pressing issues of the day in order to gain insight into some of the more "long-term analyses of fundamental causes and consequences of (social) issues" (van Dijk, 1993, 253). CDA wants to know what structures, strategies or other properties of text, talk, verbal interaction or communicative events play a role in the (dominant) modes of reproduction… that results in social inequality, including political, cultural, class, ethnic, racial and gender inequality (ibid, 250). As opposed to textual analysis where research is solely focused on the text, discourse analysis allows researchers to consider the contextsocial, political and culturalin which the text was produced. Because the researchers were attempting to ascertain some thematic areas in Nigeria's history, CDA comes handy as a suitable method for a deep reading of these themes in the movies. It availed the researchers the opportunity to describe (by reading the spoken and visual texts), interpret (locating the themes in the movies) and explain (relating the themes to the general society).
Key Informant Interviews (KII):These are qualitative in-depth interviews with people who know what is going on in the community. The purpose of key informant interview is to collect information from a wide range of peopleincluding community leaders, professionals or residents -who have firsthand knowledge about the community. Since "a film is not only a sequence of moving images but also an organized mixture of images, words, texts, music and noises that are characterized by a constant displacement and circulation of meaning" (Jensen, 2002, 134), this study investigated meanings in films by critically analyzing filmic representations of salient issues of ethnicity, imperialism, religion and military rule. Believing with Lull (1990, 21) that "naturally occurring conversations conserve as a means for seeing the subtle ways that ideology is woven into normative interaction by examining audience members", this study used key informant questions to corroborate the Critical Discourse Analysis. The informants' responses with their knowledge, background an...
