CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Television has become a significant social phenomenon in Nigeria and all over the world. Television viewing is believed to generate social forces of undeniable influence. It is assumed the most entertainment mass medium for man, women and children.

Television daily programmes which get full attention of the viewers. One might say what impact television is able to inculcate in children. It is because of various plays, music, films, and other shows which are televised every day. (Zubari, 1992).

However, the most important agent of socialization for the development of the child is the mass media. The Mass Media are the different processes that facilitate communication between the sender of a message and the receiver of that message. It plays an important role in the socialization of children. In fact, there are many types of media; these include newspapers, magazines, radio, films, CDs, Internet, and television. These kinds of media, especially television, affect children’s and adult’s behavior in different ways. Adewumi (1998).

Similarly, television as a major agent of socialization has a great effect on our society today. When watching different TV shows seeing all those actors and actresses with these great figures hurt many people in the society today. In other ways watching TV could be a good thing when an actor or actress is on TV in different shows or music it could bring many good things like being a role model for an adolescent teenager who wants someone to looks up too. Having these agents is a great guideline for people who want to start with a great start with their children or wants to be a good communicator.

The average family in the Nigeria has at least one television turned on for at least seven hours a day. Television is the biggest mass media in a country and has positive and negative aspects.

There are some programs which are very helpful with lots of information for the children. For example; AIT and Silverbird T.V, have some good programme called “Dora, the Explorer”. Children can learn to speak so many educative programme and also do things such as singing, standing up and pronouncing words in English.

On the same channel, there is also a program called “Blue’s Clues”. In this program, children learn how to think, sing and discover clues. When children watch these programs, they are not the same people anymore because they can become more knowledgeable. These programs are very good because they change children’s minds and make the children different from what they were before.

However, there are also television programs that affect children negatively. For instance; on channel eleven, there is a dreadful program that is bad for the children; it is called “Jerry Springer”. This program should not be shown on TV because it has a lot of fights and vulgar language. “W.W.F” is another negative program, which has too much violence, and unfortunately children love it. Children should not see these kinds of programs because children tend to imitate the fighters. In addition, there are some movies that have a lot of violence and bad words and children love these kinds of movies. Children like and learn how to use knives, guns and explosives because they see it on TV. Sometimes children take the role of their superheroes in real life because they see their favorite actors using these weapons. For example; when children watch the actor stealing a car on TV, they learn from it and they also want to steal because they want to be like their superheroes.

1.2     STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

The positive and negative effect of television on the behaviour of secondary school student attract the attention of so many intelligent people in the state and other in the educational sector see the problem to  which the research address itself are many.

In this case the problem of the research in in this programmes is how can secondary school students be affect in a positive way.

Generally this work examine the influence of on the behaviour of children especially students of King and Queens College, Bonny Rivers State.

1.3     PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

       To study whether Kings and Queens School students have access to        television.

       To know how often secondary school students watch television  programme.

       To examine various television programme mostly watched by King and Queens College students.

       To study weather Kings and Queens school students imitate what they    see      television.

       To examine if secondary students are exposure to television violence       induced           negative behaviour.

       To know if television affect children education and social life of the student.

1.4     RESEARCH QUESTION

       Do Kings and Queens secondary school students have access to television?

       What kind of television programme is mostly watch by Kings and Queens secondary school students?

       Does Kings and Queens students imitate what they see on television?

       Does the students exposure to television violence induced negative behaviour?

       Does the exposure to television affect education and social life of the student?

       Does exposure of students to television programmes influence their patronage of products?

       To what extent does the entertainment programmes on television influence the choice of dressing of students?

       Do the entertainments programmes on television influence the choice of peer group of students?

1.5     RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

H1:    Kings and queens college students do not imitate what they watch on TV.

HO:   Kings and queens college students imitate what they watch on TV.

H2:    TV contents do not affect kings and queens college students.

H2:    TV contents affects kings and queens college students.

1.6     SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study is to discover the influence of television on secondary school students and how television watching affect their attitude. This is because negative behaviour is caused by so many factors such as; family, school, peers, environment and most influential is television all of this factors work together at the same time to build the attitude of children.

Therefore, 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, teacher and determine watching hour and programme exposure of their children.

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

Media houses will also learning how to schedule their programmes and know the nature of the programmes to be televised.

1.7     SCOPE OR DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The scope of the study has been limited to the Kings and Queens secondary school students from both the junior classes to the senior classes are to be studied.

Kings and Queens secondary school is selected from all schools in Rivers State due to lack of money, time and logistics to study all secondary school students in the state.

Wide research of this nature cannot be carried out without some constrains, this constrains pose a lot of limitations to this work.

Time: Duration for the research work is relative1y short while stress emanated from other academic activities is also another constrain.

Material: Little materials are also available because the work is relatively new.

Financial: Financial constrain poses another challenges as most of information are gathered through newspapers

1.8     DEFINITION OF TERMS

Effects:  an action or pattern of behaviour that is repeated often that it becomes typical of somebody, although i.e or she might not aware of it.

Secondary School: A school for children who are between the ages of eleven to eighteen years old.

Students: This is one studied at school, college or university.

Television: This is an electronic device that presents event and situation in audio visual manner with the capacity to make viewers see the event in a real sense.

Viewing: to watch something or ability to see something from a particular place.