Entertainment-Education and HIV/AIDS Awareness: Analysing the Effect of Nollywood Films on ESUT Students’ Knowledge and Attitude

Entertainment-education strategies have gained global recognition as effective approaches to promoting public health awareness by embedding health messages within engaging narrative content, yet their specific impact on HIV/AIDS knowledge and attitude among Nigerian undergraduates remains insufficiently documented. This study analysed the effect of HIV/AIDS-themed Nollywood films on the knowledge levels and attitudinal dispositions of ESUT students toward the disease. The study was anchored on the Entertainment-Education Theory developed by Singhal and Rogers, which posits that strategically designed entertainment content can simultaneously inform, persuade, and motivate audiences toward pro-social behaviours. A quasi-experimental design was adopted, involving a pre-test exposure-post-test assessment of 280 student participants divided into experimental and control groups. A structured questionnaire measuring HIV/AIDS knowledge and attitude was administered before and after experimental group members viewed three selected Nollywood films with prominent HIV/AIDS storylines. Findings indicated a statistically significant increase in HIV/AIDS knowledge scores among the experimental group following film exposure, alongside measurable attitudinal shifts toward reduced stigma and increased empathy for persons living with HIV. However, behavioural intention items showed limited improvement, suggesting that film exposure alone is insufficient to drive behaviour change without complementary interventions. The study concluded that entertainment-education through Nollywood films is an effective short-term knowledge and attitude intervention for HIV/AIDS awareness among ESUT students. It was recommended that public health agencies partner with Nollywood producers to develop sustained campaign-oriented film series with targeted health messages.
Keywords: entertainment-education, HIV/AIDS, Nollywood, attitude change, ESUT students