THE ROLE OF CABLE TV IN THE EDUCATION OF SECONDARY GIRLS IN OWERRI (A CASE STUDY OF OWERRI GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS)
ABSTRACT
This research work studied the role of cable TV in the education of secondary girls in Owerri using Owerri Girls High School Students as a case study. The research was carried out sequel to the need to identify any related changes, consequences, and factors that will occur to student’s mentality, performance and lifestyle as a result of the influence of the cable television towards them. Survey method was adopted for the analysis of data and the instrument employed was the questionnaire method. A total of 200 questionnaires were administered and 180 were returned. Simple random sampling was used in selecting the sample for this study. The results obtained indicate that cable television can impact both positively and negatively on the behaviour of most students. It was therefore recommended that cable television operators should give more airtime to programmes that will impact positively on students such as career and moral guidance and less airtime to those with negative impact such as most home video depicting violence.
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The role of the media on the psychological development of the child is profound. It has something of a clichifo observed that despite many decades of research and hundreds of studies, that connection between people’s consumption of the mass media and their subsequent behaviour has remained elusive. Cable television is proliferated over the country. As a result the viewership for channels like CNN, BBC, African Magic, AIT, Nollywood, supports, and STAR TV in increasing gradually. Various types of programmes such as nerves serials sport, film based programmes and music programmes. Studies have profound effect on children, be on their studies, work habits, play activities, sleeping pattern, their relationship with others etc.
Beentyes, B.J (1998) The expansion of television viewers through cable television has enormously increased the scope for advertising with the coming of cable television in Nigeria, children spend up to four hours watching cable television programmes which decrease their academic performance or achievement.
Collards et al (1999). It provides them thrill and entertainment which does not add to their knowledge and creativity. According to several school authorities, students were showing behavoural abnormalities which leads to poor performance. Cable television, formerly known as community antenna television or CATV, was born in the mountains of Pennsylvania in 1948. community antenna television (now cacced cable television) was started by John Walson and Margaret Walson in the spring of 1948. the mid 1940s to sell, instill and repair general electric appliances in the mahazoy city, Pennsylvania area.
In 1947, the walson also begun selling television sits however, Mahanoy city residents had problems receiving the three nearby phiadephia network stations with local antenna because of the regions surrounding mountains. John Walson erected on antenna on a utility pole on a local mountain top that enable him to demonstrate the television with gold broadcasts coming from the three Philadelphia stations. The cable television is such a powerful medium that change the attitudes of students in particular and forms habit that reflect those represented in cable television asogrammes. Most parents see the cable television as something that corrupts and waste their children’s time, while others see it as an effective teaching aid. This background, the role cable television in the education of secondary school students in Owerri will be studies. This research will identify the academic and behavioural change prevalent in our secondary school students as a result of time spent in viewing cable television programmes, the type of programmes they prefer to watch and the influence of viewing these programmes on the academic performance of the secondary school girls in Owerri.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
A lot of people claim there is no observable impact of cable television in the education of students, yet parents and teachers have shown much concern about the effect of cable television on our young people. In the light of which Maduewusi (2005) called for utmost caution in cable television programme production. Cable television has the potentials to generate both negative and positive effect. Dietz and strasburger (1991). It is therefore unfortunate that great deals of cable television show which students have devoted their time to watch are not educational. Studies by Johnson, smailes, kasin and Brook(1999);shows that the average adolescent spends more time watching cable television than in the classroom. The time spent watching cable television has been attributed to being one of the causes of the falling standard of education in developing countries like Nigeria. The time spent viewing cable television frequently limits the time for reading, studying and developing other necessary physical, mental and social skills. It is against this background that researcher is carrying out this study designed to identify the role of enable television in the education of secondary school girls in Owerri.
1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The needfulness of this study can never be over stressed. The significance of the study is on the education of secondary school students as a result of cable television viewers and exposure. Itidentified its benefits and challenges to societal growth and development especially in this twenty-first (21st) century of educational and youth advancement. It is also hopeful that the study will help the students who might want to consult it for further studies. This research remains for further research Another significance is that it can serve as an academic sources to fill knowledge gap. The result of the study is also expected to act as a guide for parent/guidance to control what their children watch.
1.4 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose or this study is to cohere the following to identify the influence of cable television on the academic performance of students.
To know the influence of cable television on the socialization of students.
To know if cable television improves and develop the standard of education and to what extent student benefit.
To find out study habits of students that cable.
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study restricted to students only to students girls High school Owerri. Also, investigating the role of cable television in the education of secondary school students, the researcher shall limit himself to the educational aspects of the students’ lives.
1.6 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The study is limited by many factors among them are:
Limitation of researcher both in financial and time resources: this research work is not finded by the government research agencies or academic bodies, but is strictly founded through the financial strength of the researcher who is a full time student with 10 sources of the one except the merger allowance from the parents and guidance. The financial constraint has affected the researcher in no small measure as my good researcher is based on fund and line
1.7 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following research questions will be answered to meet the purpose of the study.
Does cable television viewing influence students academic performance.
Does Cable television viewing influence students study habit?
Does Cable television viewing influence students life style?
Does cable television viewing improved the standards of education of students?
Does Cable television influence the socialization of students what is the level of contribution of cable television programme viewing on the socialization of students.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Role: the function of position that someone or something has or is expected to have.
Cable television: it is the system of distributing television programmes to subscribers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables or light pulse through fiber optic cables.
Secondary education: Education from children between 11-18
Education: The process of training, teaching and learning especially schools and colleges.
Students: A person engaged in study, one who is devoted to learning, a leaner, a pupil, scholar especially one who attends a school, or who seek knowledge from professional teachers, or from books as the students of an academic, a college or University (now. Answer-com/topic/student) it could also mean a leaner who is enrolled in an educational institution(By Nkeiru Hanry 2010).
THE ROLE OF CABLE TV IN THE EDUCATION OF SECONDARY GIRLS IN OWERRI (A CASE STUDY OF OWERRI GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS)