INFLUENCE OF AURORA TV PROGRAMME ON CHILDREN

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background of Study

The propagation of television and its attendant’s consequence on social behaviour of children has called for a great concern in recent times. The value of television as a medium of mass communication is esteemed all over the world. Television portray message that have influence on the viewers, mostly, their mode of dressing. Television holds a very special place in the culture of a people. “Television, like books are culturally special medium…an important medium of cultural transmission (Baran, 2009:75). Studies show that television contributes to the socialization and the transmission of culture (Baran, 2009; Daramola, 2007).

Ever since Television came into existence, it has remained the most influential medium among the mass media. It can be considered a credible source of information. The reasons being the full colour, action packed, audio and visual strength, combination of actors/actresses as well as presenters. This makes television a realism medium to the audience. It carries the audiences along through drama, film, documentaries and other beautiful presentation and shows thereby entertaining, educating, and informing them. “The influence of Television on teenagers, adolescents and children are widespread. The influence is mainly on their dressing and their attires, that is, what they wear and what they use to adorn themselves” (Saodah & Mohd, nd.)

Therefore, television is a powerful instrument that can build or destroy people’s culture due to its conversational nature. It also plays a role in the daily lives of men and women in the way they perceive and conceived themselves and in the way they conduct their own lives (Aldana, 2004:1).

A lot of researches, most especially in developed countries suggest that visual media (e.g Television) influence a range of attitudes and behaviors among children. Scholars such as Huesmann and Taylor (2003) are of the view that television has authority over young people’s decision. They assert that “children just accept what the television tells them without question”. In contribution, Baran (2009) opines that “television technology is but a double age sword that has the power of doing good and evil to anybody exposed to it”. Keyes (2000:1) raised fears about the negative influence that the media have on child culture. “Children are particularly vulnerable to outside influence from their television sets because their values and ideals have not yet fully developed”. Thus they are prone to alteration by any slightest means. Chari (2005) says “their world is erected by the stories they hear, see and tell. Television plays significant role in this process, hence the importance of who should determine what should shape people’s perception and how”.

Television in terms of fashion has influenced the children, thereby making them believe in a particular way of dressing. The kind of clothes used in acting, stage music, advertisement are presented to the society as the best dressing to make one look good. Mangwere et-al (2013) supports this, stating that “television are some of the factors that today affects the way teenagers (children) dress, talk, walk and even influence the type of music or food they want.

Besides being influenced by the characters on television, children are also prone to be influence by the presenters of the programme (Boone, & Lomore, 2001). By implication, children absorb this movie contents without restraint or second thought. Elaborating on the negative effect of television. Omede (2011) in Apuke (2016) asserts that:

In recent times, it has been observed that a change is occurring in the mode of dressing and clothing style of the younger population. They dress weirdly and embarrassingly. The female younger population mostly dresses half nude; they prefer to wear trousers and skimpy shirts or tee-shirts that reveals their tummy, body hug which shows all the contours in their body frames or mini-skirt with a see – through tops while the boys although still wear shirt and trousers but which are always in various bigger sizes compared to their nominal sizesApuke (2016) further submits that “the way students on campuses of learning dress leave many to wonder where they get these dresses from. They tend to copy different television programme presenters and actors/actresses costumes projected on the screen which are mostly contrary to our traditional norms and values”.

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1.2 Statement of Problems

Considering the importance of television generally in promoting the culture of the society and influencing behavior of children either positively or negatively the researcher felt an obvious need for embarking on the study. A lot of studies have been carried out in Nigeria pertaining to primary school children; the recent study on children was “enhancing the learning ability of primary school children with television”.

Although there are several television programmes that are good to impact good behavioural habits as well as moral value to the primary school children, but they failed to take notice of such programmes, it also envisaged problems. Investigation reveals the problems of the Influence of Aurora TV Programme on Children research work:

• Constant viewing of Aurora television programme that are specially made for adult by primary school children.
• Lack of parental control on television viewing habit of the primary school children.
• Poor creation of awareness of time for those programmes made for children viewing by the media houses.

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1.3 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to investigate the influence of Television Programme on Children. In achieving this aim, the specific objectives were set out as follows:

1. To explore dressing pattern contained in television programmes.
2. To determine how exposure to television programmes influence the dressing pattern of children.
3. To determine how to dissuade child from indecent dressing projected on television programmes.

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1.4 Research Questions

The study is guided by the following research question:

• What are the dressing patterns contained in some television programmes?
• To what extent has the exposure to television influence the dressing pattern of children?
• How can children be dissuaded toward indecent dressing projected on television programmes?
• Does Aurora Television (TV) programme negatively influence children in terms of their behaviour?
• Does Aurora Television (TV) programme impacts children academic performance in school?

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1.5 Research Hypothesis

The following are the hypothesis of the research work;

H0: There is a negative influence in the dressing patterns contained in some television programme towards children

H1: There is a positive influence in the dressing patterns contained in some television programme towards children

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1.6 Scope of Study

The study focuses on the influence of Television Programme on Children, using Aurora Television (TV) Programme as a case study.

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1.7 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.8 Significance of Study

The fundamental significance of the study lies in enhancing the primary school children learning behavior by exposing them to various stages and changes they will experience in life. The study provides means for the Nigerian primary school children on how best they can cope or manage themselves at any stage of life. It will assist the primary school children to value the culture of their society and to a greater extent appreciate reading other people culture and history. It will also help them to start taking notice of the most educative programme that the television industries create for them.

The study will help in promoting a better understanding of the Nigerian primary school children behavior to the adult. It will help parents to know a better way of impacting morals, norms and values of life to those children. It will provide appropriate way of guiding the television viewing habits of these children by the parents. Also, it will help the society to inculcate the societal norms and values to Nigerian primary school children, and to provide a useful guide to the television stations to develop a comprehensive and educative programme that will impact, good morals on adolescent behaviour.

Besides, the study will serve as reference material for subsequent researcher in the field or related topics.

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1.9 Definition of Terms

For the sake of clarity, the following terms are defined as used in the work:

1. Media: This refers to various means of communication. It can also refer to the technologies that distribute messages to vast or heterogeneous audience. Principally they include books, newspapers and magazines, journals television, radio, and the internet.
2. Medium: this is a singular form of media. It is the channel through which message is sent to the receiver.
3. Pattern: This is the way in which a person performs his/her activities or functions in life. It can also be seen as the repeated or regular way in which something happens or is done.
4. Influence: this means control or “teleguiding” the attitude of somebody or organization to elicit desirable responses or actions from such a person.
5. Children: young boys and girls between the ages of 1 to 17years who have exuberance for change.
6. Television: The Webster dictionary defines television as the exact and continuous transmission of visual image, still or in motion but without permanent recording.