The Influence of Television on the Social Behavior of Youths in Enugu North LGA; A Study of Enugu North LGA
Chapter One
Objectives of the Study
The major objectives of this study, is to ascertain the influence of Television programs on the social behavior of youths in Enugu North LGA.
The specific objectives of the study are as follows:
- To ascertain if there is an over-emphasis of negative themes in Television programs.
- To identify the negative effects or disadvantages associated with watching Television programs.
- To find out how Television programs can affect the society indirectly.
- To suggest ways to prevent or reduce the negative effects or malevolence caused by Television programs in our contemporary society.
CHAPTER TWO
Nigerian Home Video; History and Development
The history and development of Nigerian home video can be divided into two main parts;
- The colonial era till the 1980s and
- The 1980s till date
The Colonial Era Till 1980s
According to the Adenugba (2007) Nigerians first experience in film screening was in 1903 at the Glover Memorial Hall, and enthralled the audience was (Uchegbu1992:48) even through film was introduced by an European merchant, it took the combined efforts of the colonial administration and the church to sustain the industry (Ekwuasi1987). The content of such films can be easily discerned. The British colonialist used it for their ―civilizing mission as well as to indicate the blessedness of being colonized. The church, as their involvement in education and the media industry h as shown, used films for spreading the gospel.
Ekwuasi (1984) opines that film production distribution and exhibition was restricted to Lagos where they compete with concerts and drama shows and the content of such movies were highly censored. Gradually, however the production, distribution of film was extended to towns in the immediate hinterland of Lagos and beyond it. As the country became more industrialized, and urbanized, there was a need to establish distribution/exhibition centers in these new areas and in no time, the branches of the distribution and exhibition companies has spread all over the country.
The colonial government did not fully practice in the film business until the commencement of the World War II with the establishment of the colonial film unit (CFU) in the colonies and the objectives of the films were:
- To show and convince the colonies that they and the English had a common enemy in the
Germans to this end; about a quarter of all the films made by the CFU were war related
- To enhance communal development in the colonies
- To show the outside world the excellent work being done in the colonies
The colonial film unit was the main producer of films in the colony and was founded through the Colonial Development Welfare Act. The CFU made propaganda films. The unit acquired films and showed them to the people. All the films were to help the spread of British imperialism. There were two approaches to production of this time; the affirmation of the colonizer‘s culture as better and the negation of the colonized culture.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
Descriptive survey design research was employed for the study. The choice of the design was based on Afolabi (1993) and Adetoro (1996) who opined that when a study involve deriving data from questionnaire aimed at documenting current conditions or attitudes of the respondents descriptive survey design should be used. Similar Ekeh (2003) stated that descriptive research design should be used to describe an event, situation or phenomenon at the time of the study. Based on these citations, the researcher considered survey design appropriate for this study since it has to collect data from Youths across the six local Government Areas in Enugu State.
Population for the Study
The population for the study was three thousand five hundred (3500) made up of 2212 males and 1388 females youths. The population for this study consisted of the entire adolescent youths in Enugu North LGA in Enugu State.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
ANALYSIS OF DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
The summary of this study is presented on the topic influence of Home Video watching on the cultural development of Secondary School youths in Enugu State. The chapter contains among others the conclusion and recommendations as well as suggestions for further studies on the subject.
Time spent watching home video decreases the amount of time available for pursuing other more healthy activities such as reading, writing assignments or house chores and family time. However, the influence of home video watch and television viewing on social behavior of secondary school Enugu State includes: exposure to media violence has been positively related to subsequent aggressive behaviour, ideas, arousal, and anger. Additionally, there is a significant negative effective of exposure to violence on subsequent helping behaviour.
Studies also indicate that watching home video has a negative effect on children‘s cultural development. When children watch Home video, they are typically not reinforcing school activities or doing homework and children watching home video when they like tend to performed poor on reading. The influence of home video watching may influence younger children to become more antisocial, resulting in their becoming socially isolated which, in turn, attracts them to more violent media. As children spend more total time watching home video they spend a significantly shorter amount of time with friends as compared to those who don‘t. Most children who are exposed to violence through media or watching of home video had poorer cultural development and its impact on their psychological adjustment was detrimental.
Contribution to Knowledge
The study has contributed to knowledge in the following ways:
- Home videos has influence on social behavior of Secondary School youths in Enugu State.
- Longer hours used on television watching has negative influence on the social behavior of Secondary School youths in Enugu State.
- The use of projectors and seminars with the youths will give guidance by providing solutions towards good watching habits among youths in the Secondary School.
- The study will serve as reference material to both youths, teachers and administrators in Enugu State, the parents and researchers alike.
Conclusion
From the findings of this study it concluded that home video has influence on cultural development of secondary school youths in Enugu state. This also showed that the response of male and female on the influence of time spent in home video viewing on cultural developments of youths in LGA in Enugu state proved significant.
The study conclude that longer hours used on television watching have negative influence on the social behavior of the secondary school in Enugu State. The study notes that youths on their own might not be able to tackle this phenomenon due to the pleasure involved in watching related media and home video programmes.
Recommendations
Based on the study findings the following recommendations were proffered.
- Home Video Programmes should be controlled by parents to maximize the inherent advantages for Secondary School youths in the state.
- Time spent on viewing by youths could be restricted to prevent addiction and counter negative tendencies associated with prolonged watching of Home video by Secondary school youths
- Teachers should educate their youths on the differences of role play in drama and the actual reality of life such that youths will not always take every action in a movie with hook and silk as behavior they could emulate
- More attention should be focused on the male youths in the control of time spent watching Home video especially those depicting anti-cultural developments
- Male youths should be given necessary education on the dangers of emulating characters they see in movies from time to time as a way of inculcating moral discipline by parents.
- Hence, to tackle this recurrent phenomenon in our homes, parents should monitor the shows, films and programmes their children are viewing. Also, to enhance youths‘ cultural development, parents should ensure that high-quality educational programmes be made available and children should be encouraged to watch informational, educational and nonviolent movies and programmes
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