Emerging Nollywood Digital Economy versus Technological Maladjustment: An Impact Evaluation

ABSTRACT: Nollywood as an emerging film industry has arguably become the most influential in Africa. Itis reputed to be one of the most visible sources of cultural production in the African continent. Currently,one ofthe most prominent discussions about Nollywood revolves around technological innovations in the industryincluding as related to the media of dissemination of the movies produced in the industry. The industry has overthe years evolved from the era of VHS tape to that of VCD/DVD, and ultimately to the era of digital distributionand consumption of films. This current era is bringing about a Nollywood digital economy where movies aresold and bought online, which helps to circumvent the perennial challenges of piracy and high marketing costthat has over the years burdened the industry. However, while the technological innovation is laudable, thepossibility of technological maladjustments especially among the older generation consumers may hinder theextent of penetration of this new digital culture, thus limiting the gains the industry could make from it.Anchored on the Diffusion of Innovations Theory, the study was designed as a qualitative study and adoptedFocus Group Discussion as its method of data collection to easily to evaluate the extent technologicalmaladjustment may have hindered audience participation in the emerging Nollywooddigital market. Eighteenrespondents were involved in the FGD sessions. Major finding of the study indicate that respondents mostlyamong the older generation experience difficulty adjusting to the new technological environment as regards totrading and viewing movies which to a little extent negatively impacts the emerging digital economy whichNollywood is becoming as the audience affected by the maladjustment are in the minority. The study thereforerecommends among others the need for Nollywood stakeholders to continually create awareness on the varioustechnological advancements it embarks on to encourage movie consumers to readily adjust to change in terms ofviewing, downloading and trading nollywood movies.

KEY WORDS: Digital Economy, Nollywood Movies, Technological Maladjustment