INFLUENCE OF REALITY TV SHOW ON BRAND IMAGE

1.1 Introduction

Television is an audio-visual medium that has the capacity to influence the attitude, behaviour, thinking, and socialization of an individual from childhood to the adulthood stage. Television is one of the powerful agents of socialization where people cultivate some habits because it mirrors reality. One of the ways television stations achieve this is through reality television show. This kind of show has influenced people especially the adolescents on their day to day activities including their decisions and attitudes towards dealing with real-life encounters. Television is used for several reasons including information, education, entertainment, and persuasion. Unlike other media structures, television has the advantage of utilizing vision for mass communication.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Reality-based shows have gradually taking over global television programming. People who have been following events on television for the past five years can easily agree that television programming in the twenty-first century has thus far been dominated by reality-based programmes (Nielsen, 2005). For the past several years, reality television has dominated mainstream television programming, providing relatively inexpensive entertainment (Gardyn, 2001). No doubt, reality television has become a pastime which many television stations now rely on for winning large audience and advertisement patronage from advertisers.

Reality television shows are overtaking the networks leaving behind an even bigger effect than that of regular television program which is believed to generate social forces of undeniable influence. Meanwhile, reality television is a genre of television programme that documents unscripted situations and actual occurrences, and often features a previously unknown cast. The genre often highlights personal drama and conflict to a much greater extent than other unscripted television such as documentary shows. Therefore, programming remains a key instrument for attracting audience and determining the viability of a station.

Koblowe and Oluchi (2010) programmes attract advertisers in showcasing their products and services in the forms of Sponsorships where advertiser assumes total financial responsibility for producing the programme and providing the commercials and advertiser can control the content and quality of the program and the placement and length of commercials. Similarly, Product Placement can be used when a company pays to have verbal or visual brand exposure in a movie or TV program.

MTN Project Fame, Big Brother Africa and “Nigeria Got Talents” are some of reality television shows that have many Nigerians undergraduates and talented youth as participants and fans. For the purpose of this study, effort is dwelled on MTN Project Fame Project Fame is a regional music talent TV reality show filmed in Lagos, Nigeria, aired in the West Africa. It is a local version of Star Academy reality series that was developed and is licensed worldwide by Endemol. The show features contestants from Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the show is broadcast by 4 networks in these four countries.

Reality television programmes have been criticized for being overly provocative and a disquieting representation of the society. The South African version of Big Brother proved to be highly controversial for its overt sexual content. However, Hyde-Clark notes that youth perceive reality programmes to be a reflection of their culture. “Youth may see reality TV as a reflection of the attitudes and behaviour exhibited in society. They may see the comments made by contestants as an accurate expression of how they are viewed by society, and adjust their perception of themselves accordingly”. This study, therefore, became necessary as it analyzed reality programmes on television as well as assessing the perception of the youth, especially Nigerian students, regarding reality programmes on television.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to assess the Influence of Reality TV Show on Brand Image.

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1.3 Statement of the Problem

Investigation revealed that reality television as it is known today emerged in the last ten years and very little has been written about it, let alone been researched. It is argued that an element of reality programmes’ appeal is that it help viewers to feel important because seeing ordinary people on the shows allows them to fantasize that they could gain celebrity status by being on television.

Green et al., (2004), opined that reality TV show contributes to enjoyment by distracting audience members’ from personal concerns or stress, allowing them to learn new things, and fostering a sense of connection with characters.

James (2006) revealed that no prior studies had been conducted on reality television in Africa and Nigeria context in particular up to 2005. It is therefore clear that reality television research is still in its infancy stage and that research approach is currently most needed in this field of study as it is been used to promote brand or product identity.

However, the research examines the extent of which reality television show influences audience on brand image of product and some of the elements or factors that determine audience interest in watching reality television show. To this end, focus is made on MTN Project Fame since it is very difficult if not impossible to study all reality TV show in Nigeria and researcher shall limited the study to the students of University of Lagos, Akoka in Lagos State.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of study is to assess the Influence of Reality TV Show on Brand Image. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To assess the level of influence which reality television show has on brand image of MTN,
2. To investigate the influence of reality television show on brand image of MTN, and
3. To examine the factors that influence viewers to participate actively in MTN Project Fame.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Are the factors that influence viewers to participate actively in MTN Project Fame?
• What is the influence of reality television show on brand image of MTN?
• What is the level of influence which reality television show has on brand image of MTN?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There are no significant factors that influence viewers to participate actively in MTN Project Fame
• H1: There are significant factors that influence viewers to participate actively in MTN Project Fame

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1.7 Significance of Study

This study will show parents how to be responsible for the upbringing and training of their children instead of living such training to their peers, television, and teachers. Media houses will also learning how to schedule their programmes and know the nature of the programmes to be televised to youth. Media planners will also know how best to package reality show and to let them know what people wants.

Therefore, the findings of this research will serve as a good literature for both scholars and students of mass communication and those in other related field who might want to carry out similar or related research in the future.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The study focuses on the Appraisal of the Influence of Reality TV Show on Brand Image using MTN Project Fame in Nigeria as a case study.

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1.9 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 establishment 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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1.10 Definition of Terms

Reality TV: This is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unknown individuals rather than professional actors.

Student: A student is primarily a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution who attends classes in a course to attain the appropriate level of mastery of a subject under the guidance of an instructor and who devotes time outside class to do whatever activities the instructor assigns that are necessary either for class preparation or to submit evidence of progress towards that mastery.

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.

Medium: this is a singular form of media. It is the channel through which message is sent to the receiver.

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.

Influence: this means control or “teleguiding” the attitude of somebody or organization to elicit desirable responses or actions from such a person.

Television: The Webster dictionary defines television as the exact and continuous transmission of visual image, still or in motion but without permanent recording.