IMPACT OF WESTERN TELEVISION PROGRAMME ON THE CULTURAL VALUE OF NIGERIA YOUTHS
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IMPACT OF WESTERN TELEVISION PROGRAMME ON THE CULTURAL VALUE OF NIGERIA YOUTHS
ABSTRACT
Television has been a tremendously significant medium of mass communication due to its audio and visual capabilities. Scholars of communication have traditionally investigated the impact of various forms of communication, particularly television, on society.
various efforts provide individuals, communities, and organisations that use various media with relevant knowledge about how to use them most effectively. The dispute over whether television effects youth attitudes and behaviour has elicited a wide range of responses, all substantiated by various studies.
This study investigates the impact of television programming on the cultural value of Nigerian youths. It is worth noting that there is growing concern over the erosion of cultural values among Nigerian young.
This terrible scenario is sometimes attributed to the impact of foreign television programs. Foreign programmes not only undercut Nigerian youngsters’ cultural values, but they also impact their behaviour and the prevalence of foreign attitudes and habits.
The study is based on Social Cognitive Theory, which states that excessive television viewing “cultivates” conceptions of reality that are consistent with the worldview given in television shows.
Some Nigerian adolescents believe that what they see on foreign television programs is true, and that there is a need to adopt the habits, attitudes, behaviour, and values portrayed in television programs.
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
The television, as a secondary agent of socialisation, has had a significant impact on the lives of many people from diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.
Its importance in people’s lives, particularly among youth, cannot be overstated. Youth are the most vulnerable targets of cultural imperialism. Socialisation and culture are two sides of the same coin, thus they are inexorably related.”
Devadas and Ravi (2013) described culture as an ongoing fundamental aspect of every society’s life that is learnt, taught, and passed from one generation to the next through various agents of socialisation.
It suffices to say that no culture exists without a way of life that is unique to them, and that this way of life necessarily influences their interactions both internally and externally.
Members of a society’s interactional process culminating in a value system that reflects their worldview. People’s values may refer to their opinions of worthy or unworthy matters, preferred or disliked attributes, and other aspects of their worldview.
When a cultural group holds and defines a specific worldview throughout time, it matures into cultural value and eventually becomes a legacy. So, with this context in mind, Daramola (2005) writes “culture is a social legacy that an individual acquires from his group, which comprises of values, customs, beliefs, language, religion, technology, emotional patterns, behavioural patterns and among many other socio-cultural symbols” .
Furthermore, globalisation has consolidated our entire world into a single entity, making cultural accumulation particularly clear in current times, cutting beyond continents, countries, and local characteristics.
Cultural accumulation has slowed cultural transfer, thereby extinguishing various indigenous cultural values and people’s legacies, according to Jekayinka (2002), who defines culture as the entire repertoire of human behaviour that is socially passed from generation to generation. The introduction of visualising motion in movies has increased the photoelectric speed of this effect.
Its orgy has posed diverse meanings to individuals over whether to accept or reject television programs as a blessing to their cultural values, particularly in Africa, based on the behavioural tendencies of its adolescent population.
According to Signorielli and Kahlenberg (2003), “the television is the first centralised cultural influence to permeate both the initial and final years of life as well as the years in between”. Thus, Western television programs are considered and argued by various experts as a strategy to support imperialism, dubbed “a model of cultural imperialism”.
Therefore, the acceptable fact of Nigerian culture fading out as a result of the acceptance and adaption of the modernist’s answer to perceived under-civilization and underdevelopment, as cited in (Obiora, 2002) quintessence of cultural imperialism.
Television programs aired on various stations and channels are intended to educate, entertain, and inform viewers. This is widely accepted as a method of guiding the transmission of television programs.
To a significant extent, the three pillars of media have been met, as they are crucial measures for checking the deplorable conditions of the human mind at various socio-cultural stages.
There is no question that the introduction of TV stations into regional Nigeria from 1959 to 1961, as well as the NTA in 1976, were motivated by politics (Obono, 010).
However, it is considered that they played an important role in enabling an educated population, particularly through effective political literacy and cultural development programs.
Gradually, the sector’s deregulation in 1992 resulted in an influx of private TV stations and the introduction of foreign views via cable networks, and they continued to deliver commendable results while educating, entertaining, and informing viewers under certain legislations to protect the Nigerian cultural image (Nnabuko, 2012).
Rules are gradually broken or bent throughout the course of human life. As a result, there was no exception in the media, where a methodical permeation of Western values progressively penetrated the stage in place of the perceived unrefined African cultural civilisation. With a multitude of WTP lighting African homes’ screens, the desire for indigenous cultural TV programs began to fade into obscurity.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The exponential growth of cable networks in 1997 had a significant impact on the perceptions of young adults, who are regarded to be the most avid watchers of television.
This was evident in their behaviour in terms of clothes, eating habits, greeting methods, professional interests, make-ups, attitudinal relational patterns, and interactions with other relatives.
As a result, a struggle arose between indigenous Nigerian cultures and televised Western values. Parents and carers got enraged by the new way of life of the youths; quarrels erupted in numerous Nigerian homes, and the centre could no longer hold.
This witnessed event soon transformed into a scenario of conflict seeking resolution with a question at the beck and call of Nigerians. Where’s our cultural heritage?
In this line, the purpose of this research is to determine the extent to which Western television programs have influenced the lives of Nigerian youth.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The study’s aims are as follows:
i. To determine the extent to which Nigerian youths favour Western television programmes over home-made television programmes.
ii. Determine the extent to which indigenous television programmes support Nigerian cultural values.
iii. To assess the hope for Nigerian cultural values in terms of sustainability.
iii. To investigate the feasibility of a culturally contextualised media practice.
v. Identify the role of legislation in conserving Nigeria’s cultural heritage while maintaining democracy.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS.
i. To what extent do Nigerian youths prefer Western television programmes over home-made television programmes?
ii. To what extent have indigenous television programming promoted Nigerian cultural values?
iii. What is the future of Nigerian cultural values in light of sustainability?
iii. What are the possibilities for culturally contextualised media practice?
v. What role does legislation play in conserving Nigeria’s cultural heritage while maintaining democracy?
1.5 Significance of the Study
The study will contribute to the domestication of African/Nigerian culture, which is characterised by good neighbourliness, respect for elders, virtuousness, communal living, and collectivism.
It will allow the government and policymakers, particularly the National Film and Video Censors Board and the National Broadcasting Commission, to put proper safeguards in place to prevent the influx of western television programming into Nigeria.
It will help erase the notion of unhealthily copying Western cultures or ways of living in
Nigeria.
The study will contribute to better media contextualisation in protecting a people’s culture.
Finally, the research will serve as a resource for students in relevant fields of study.
1.6 Scope of the Study
The scope of this study would centre on students at Auchi Polytechnic in Auchi who are of a young age, analysing their varying perspectives of WTPs and their impact on cultural values among Nigerian youngsters.
The university is known for a mix of Western and Traditional ideals, with the former taking precedence. This makes it an ideal study region for conducting the research.
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