Evaluation of the Role of Radio in the Campaign Against Child Abuse in Rivers State a Study of Select Radio Stations in Port Harcourt
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the Study
The main objective of the study was to evaluate of the role of radio in the campaign against child abuse in rivers state; a study of select radio stations in Port Harcourt. Specifically the study aims:
- Determine the level of awareness created by the Radio broadcast on the issue of child abuse in Port Harcourt Nigeria.
- Examine the quantity and quality of messages conveyed by the Radio broadcast on child abuse in Port Harcourt Nigeria.
- Ascertain the frequency of these messages on child abuse as conveyed by the radio programme.
- Ascertain the challenges the Radio broadcast media face in their efforts to combat child abuse in Port Harcourt Nigeria
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Conceptualization of concepts
Concept of Child Abuse
The concept of child abuse has no specific definition as it varies from individuals to ethnic, religious and professional bodies. The practice of child abuse has manifested in all socio-economic classes, religion, ethnic and cultural groups. Child abuse is not a new social problem in history. There is a considerable evidence to show that prior to the European industrial revolution and certainly during the period, there had been systematic abuse of children for both economic and ideological reasons. Since then, attempts have been made to seek an explanation to the problem and important ways of systematically controlling and preventing it as well as treating the abused child. Despite the attempts and the considerable attention, the problem still remains in recent years, a largely neglected policy area, one in which it has not been possible to obtain any widespread understanding or agreement as to the steps that can be taken to combat it, (Carballo, 1995). Carballo further posits that, child abuse is generally defined as ‘any act of commission or in the case of neglect, omission that endangers or impairs a child’s physical, developmental and emotional wellbeing’. Child abuse encompasses physical, psychological and sexual abuse and neglect.
Cook and Bowells (1980) see child abuse as ‘an act of omission from parents which interfered with the chance of children in developing to their normal potentials as human beings’. The National Council on Child Abuse and Violence states that abuse robs children of the opportunity to develop healthy and trusting relationships with adults and this contributes to low self esteem and impairs healthy psycho-social development which lasts a long time. Cichetti and Toth (2008) were concerned with what can possibly lead to the inhuman treatment of children. According to them, some of the contributing risk factors lie in the characteristics of parents and their children; some are attributed to ecological factors such as the quality of the neighbourhood and available support system. Many others are related to the life experiences and stresses family members encountered.
Cichetti & Toth (2008) also observe that abuse is likely to occur when only one risk factor is present. However, in some cases, it is the occurrence and interaction among multiple risk factors, especially in the absence of few protective factors such as: supportive marital relationship, social network and community resources, high intelligence and education, good health and adaptability that is likely to lead to abuse. Child abuse may expose the child to a lot of dangers physically and an abused child may be exposed to sexual assault like rape. Once this happen, it will affect all other areas of the child’s life such as unwanted teenage pregnancy for girls or it leads to school dropout. A child becomes dysfunctional in the society as a result of these problems. Most teenagers do not plan their first sexual experience; rather, it is something that just happens to them based o n the influence of female counterparts.
Portwood (1998) state that children who are physically abused are more likely to face variety of emotional problems and children who are sexually abused expose their genitals to their parents, friends and strangers who engage in sexual acts with them or for pornographic purposes Kimberly (2001) and Kempe, (1962) report that many children are vulnerable to extreme maltreatment such as child scolding, prostitution and labour. Female children who are between the ages of seven and thirteen years experience more sexual abuse than male children. Some of these children live with their parents, step parents, single mothers with cohabiting male, abusive parents and substance abusive family member, who, out of aggression, abuse their own children (Villigrosa, 2002).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
Research designs are perceived to be an overall strategy adopted by the researcher whereby different components of the study are integrated in a logical manner to effectively address a research problem. In this study, the researcher employed the survey research design. This is due to the nature of the study whereby the opinion and views of people are sampled.
Population of the study
A study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitute of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description (Prince Udoyen: 2019). In this study the study population constitute of the whole people in Port Harcourt Local Government Area. According to the Federal republic of Nigeria Official Gazette 2006 census population of Port Harcourt Local Government Area is 427,878. Accordingly River state grew at 2.5% annual growth rate which reveals that between 2006 and 2020 the projected population figure or growth was 700,126. Therefore , one –quarter of this population forms the population of Port Harcourt Local Government Area household according to the Federal Republic of Nigeria Official Gazette which is 175,032. Hence, this forms the population of the study.
Sample Size and Sample Techniques
The work tries to look at the evaluation of the role of radio in the campaign against child abuse in Rivers state . Convenience sampling technique was employed for the study. The convenience sampling technique also known as accidental sampling technique relies on data collection from population members who are willing and available to participate in the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
This chapter presents the data generated from the respondents with the research instrument in tables and percentages. Below, each table gives a brief explanation of the results and how it answered the research questions and meets the objectives listed of the study.
The researcher distributed a total of 385(100%) research instruments. Out of this number, 283 were returned and used for the study. One instrument was mutilated and consequently rejected by researcher as invalid. This, therefore, means that the effective sample size for this study is 384 respondents. Table 3 below presents the data.
Data from Table 3 above show that the researcher distributed 385(100%) research instruments. The whole instruments were returned but one(0.26%) was rejected because of mutilation. This therefore, means that the valid sample size is 384 respondents.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY,CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Summary
This study investigated the evaluate of the role of radio in the campaign against child abuse in Rivers state. The study attempted to find out whether radio as a social institution have lived up to its social responsibility of informing, educating and sensitizing the people in Port-Harcourt Nigeria on issues regarding the prevalence and dangers of child abuse. It was also aimed to determine the level of awareness created by the broadcast media on the nagging issue of child abuse, the frequency and quality of such message; its effectiveness, the level of public compliance to these messages and the challenges the broadcast media face in combating child abuse. The study was informed by identified gaps in extant literature on the subject matter and the need to contribute to knowledge by filling those gaps.
Our review of literature, for instance, clearly showed the existence of a rich array of studies on the subject but it nonetheless observed that the bulk of such studies to date focus mainly on the more advanced countries like the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, where there is a high level of data systematization. Our review further observed the dearth of such studies in the less developed countries like Nigeria and also the near absence of area of studies in such places.
Conclusion
The findings of this study have shown that the Radio is living up to their social responsibility of environmental scanning, informing, educating and sensitizing the public on the evils of child abuse by setting it up as an agenda for public discourse. It discloses that the television broadcast media have done this through regular, high-quality messages on child abuse. They have been able to speak out against the abuse of children’s rights as well as the obnoxious cultural beliefs that reinforce these abuses.
However, despite the commendable efforts of the television broadcast media, the abuse of children’s rights is not abating. We are daily inundated with different breaches of children’s rights in different parts of the country. Cases of pedophile abound in the northern parts of the country, child hawking, beating and maltreatment are the order of the day in every part of the country while baby factories thrive in the southeast.
Parents and guardians who cannot maintain peaceful and stable homes have not helped matters either. We discovered that instability at home and economic pressures are at the heart of the rampaging child abuse in the country. Illiteracy and cultural beliefs in different parts of the country are also to blame. Also disturbing is the problem of lack of proper delineation of child discipline and child abuse. What should pass as child abuse across all cultures has not been clearly defined because one man’s child discipline is another man’s child abuse.
Finally, we conclude that child abuse is too sensitive and important to be left for the media houses alone to tackle. The government does not seem to have done enough to stem the tide of child abuse. Much as we commend and encourage the mass media for the much that they have done, we urge the government and public-spirited individuals to join in the fight against the monster called child abuse.
Recommendations
On the strength of the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made:
- The media should embark on advocacy and prescription more determinedly. Though the media do not make laws or formulate policies for the government, they can canvass for more effective legislations that will protect the children from abuse. For instance, the vexing issue of ‘locus standi’ in prosecuting offenders and abusers of children’s rights should be made less stringent to enable people to come to the aid of abused children.
- Media programmes should explore avenues for rallying stakeholders in child welfare and child abuse eradication crusade, enlightenment programmes, public awareness and reports of child abuse cases should be done, using the public prescribe medium (radio) to disseminate information on child abuse in Nigeria.
- The fight against child abuse should be taken down to the family level where parents and guardians are found. By this, it means that churches, women groups, market places and other social gatherings are veritable arena where the fight may be positive. Hence, interpersonal and group becomes serious instruments to aid the mass media to achieve the desired result.
- Broadcast media organizations in southeast Nigeria should advocate collaboration of relevant government agencies as well as non-governmental organization in charge of child welfare to set up and fund child rights association in primary, post-primary and other schools in the locality as a way of training and inculcating the right values in children, and stress that education policy should include subjects and programmes concerning child’s right and welfare in the school curricular.
- The broadcast media should be more public-oriented in their programmes. The paucity of phone-in programmes on child abuse is a major handicap. Through such audience-participating programmes, they should be able to gauge public opinion and views on the issue and thus equip themselves on how to tackle the problem.
- The findings of this study should be a stepping stone for further investigation.
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