Chapter One Introduction
In the last few years participative Television (TV) has seen the upward growth trend with innovative technologies being deployed by broadcasters Owens et al (1999). Of the modern day inventions, the advent and spread of television channels across the globe have subtly changed the contours of social relationship. The literature on the influence of TV viewing is less. Man is a social animal and socializing plays an important role in keeping ourselves concerned about others in neighborhood. Television is the window of the world. That is through television we can see what is happening in different part of the world. The glamour and glory of television has attracted all sectors of society. It has literally hypnotized the even teenagers. Today the beneficial and adverse influence of television is a matter of great concern. The harmful influence have been often postulated and reported. “But no serious scientific attempts have been made to confirm this. Television viewing is quite random these days. People are more addicted to it rather than giving time to their dear ones.”(Owens et al 1999).
Most viewers now, however, are watching their TV mainly via cable; terrestrial and direct to home television delivered via satellite Internet through mobile phones. Accessibility to television is on increase day by day and has been accepted by the society. Varieties of programs like, News, Sports, Educative, Entertainment, animation, etc. are available round the clock. These are especially designed to attract all sectors of society. Many targeted programs and commercials in television are drawing more number of children to its folds. Adolescent high, students and adult spend more time in front of TV by waiving their regular activities.
The impact of television, a powerful media, used by very large number of student is a matter
of great concern to psychologists educationist community health personnel, pediatricians, educationalists, parents, planners and social scientists worldwide. Change in lifestyle, low school performances, behavioral abnormalities, sleep disturbances has been associated with the television viewing. Baseline data regarding television viewing habits like time spent in viewing, distance from the television, program selections etc. are crucial which need to be understood to formulate effective awareness strategies.
Influence of the media
The media has become an important institution in our modern societies. However, we often delude ourselves into underrating the capability of the press. We must understand that the press forms part of our life as members of a community. The term media is the plural of medium “the media are one of the many institutions that exist in a society.” (Berger, 2007). As people, we have identified and accepted the influence of various institutions that helps maintained our society in which we lived. Education, the family, religion, and politics, all this institution, have been accepted to have a significant impact in maintaining and influencing our lifestyle and behaviors. However, there is certain degree of delusion to the actual impact of the media on the choices we make in life and generally our way of life.
With human activities becoming more and more sophisticated, society changing, with cultural landmarks being eliminated. The Media in the 21st century have succeeded to be one of the institutions that have helped maintain the community. The media has over the years evolved into an organization that has accommodated almost all other organizations of the society, with a robust platform of presentation that has no physical boundaries. Along with this development is the challenge of “media imperialism” or “media colonialism.”
The question this development raised is to what level have this “electronic empire”. The theory of Media imperialism suggests when smaller nations are being dominated by superior nation and the thereby smaller nation losing their identity due to the media influencing foreign culture on smaller countries culture through free television and satellite. This theory has been very useful, with all world super power developing and exporting their culture through Mega Media organizations. These media organizations either absorb smaller media organizations or put them out of business. With this development, a lot of media programs have been exported, and this exported content where accepted. To further drive the concept of Media imperialism was emphasized by Hali S. M, a columnist. Has made an interesting media study on the influence of using media as the weapon that is used by developed countries to influence smaller countries. The media control as used by powerful countries equated to “god” thereby called the “the second god.” This insinuation was made by Tony Schwartz who also authored “The Responsive Chord.” Among prominent scholars who has learned their voice to the growing capacity of the media to change the world, is Marshall McLuhan. Without any doubt, the guru of the electronic age, who predicted the world coming together into a global village, explained the capacity of media to change our world and how we can shape the media. This latter part of developing the media suggests how we can use media effectively.
The stronger nations took advantage of media as a tool to propagate their culture, political ideology, and way of life embedded in television contents. This is evidence as a lot of youth this days dress, speak and behave like foreigners from America, Europe or even India as the case may be, based on their exposure on television without necessary traveling to experience these culture foreign culture first hand. The student of the American University of Nigeria comprises of youth within the age bracket of 16 to 30. This age bracket on average represents
the media quest populace that depends heavily on Western and foreign media for their
entertainment, information, and mass education at times. With this heavily, exposure comes the little by little but certainly emulation of foreign culture and way of life. Students of the American University of Nigeria are used as case study for this research.
Nigeria, and Africa in general witness enormous development with the explosive increase of media organizations. This development is evidence in recent years as many indigenous private own media house emerged. Now media institution and their content are jointly created, managed and aired with shared interest by the State media establishment and privately owned, as again when it was solely in the hands of the government. With this change, competition among local media, the institution became intensify, and our cultural values as a society stood at the receiving end. In particular, foreign News content is not seen as causing harm, like other programs. Television is in the driving seat in creating the atmosphere of media imperialism.
