Abstract
This research work was aimed at analyzing impact of NTA Enugu entertainment programmes on
youths in Enugu metropolis. The research method used was the survey method and questionnaire
was the instrument. The findings from the questionnaire showed that entertainment programmes
have negative influences on youths. After the findings, the researcher recommended that research
should be carried out by television producers to measure the acceptability and effectiveness of
their programme messages.
1.1 Background Of The Study
The word “television” is derived from mixed Latin and Greek word meaning “far sight”.
It is a widely used telecommunication used for transmitting and receiving images, either
monochromatic (black and white) or colored, usually accompanied by sound.
According to (Ogbuoshi, 2005), “Television is an electronic system that is used to
convert moving images and sound into electric signal, which are then transmitted by
radio waves or by cable to a distance that convert the signal back to images and sound”.
He also defined television “as a system for transmitting moving pictures of a scene over
long distances by radio and reproduced on receiving instruments”. When news or any
speech is made the person reading or making the speech can be seen over the television
screen. A television camera changes the area of light and shade in a picture into electric
currents of different strengths. The currents are transmitted by the radio and they are
picked up by a receiver.
The receiver changes them back into the areas of light shade, which appears as a picture
on the screen of a television set. The television has the ability to communicate
simultaneously through sounds and pictures. It shows immediately realities of what is
happening at the time it is happening and this makes it the darling of the household
members and hastens the learning process if effectively used. (Antonoff, Michael 2009),
defines television “as a system of sending receiving pictures and sounds by means of
electronic signals transmitted through wires and optical fibers or by electromagnetic
radiation.
History of Television in Nigeria
Nigeria entered the world of television broadcasting in 1939, when its Western region
adopted television broadcasting. This was one hundred years after the first print medium
appeared in the soil of what is now known as Nigeria. As the history of radio
broadcasting in Nigeria, television has a political undertone. The Macpherson
constitution of 1951 contained some flaws, one of those notable flaw was the absence of
a responsible government at the centre e.g. the ministers were not given portfolios and
neither was there a leader of government business. Again, the existence of regional ethnic
politics weakened the central legislature e.g. the representatives at the centre were to their
regions.
Moreover, the constitution still provided for an all-powerful governor with veto power
and power to legislate on any matter in the country. All these anomalies attracted the
attention of other national leaders who rose up in unison to condemn the provision of the
constitution. Outstanding among the politicians was Chief ObafemiAwolowo who
described the constitution as a “ram shackled and a retrogressive movement to an
independent nation”. The then British governor went to NBS (Nigeria Broadcasting
Service) to make a broadcast in defense of the constitution.
During the broadcast he accused Chief ObafemiAwolowo as being unfaithful, Awolowo
then demanded equal time from the NBS to offer a rebuttal of what the governor general
said. The NBS denied him the request. This led to the agitation, not only for the
incorporation of the NBS as public property, but also for eventual establishment of
separate individual regional broadcasting system independent of federal government
control. A member of the Action Group (AG) in the parliament moved the motion to
make the NBS a statutory corporation.
As a way of venting his own spleen to the colonial administration, the leader of the
Action Group (AG) and premier of the Western region, Chief ObafemiAwolowo, set up
his own broadcasting system in 1959. Thus, on October 31, 1959, the first television
station not only in Nigeria, but also in the centre of Africa, started in Ibadan. It was
commissioned in as radio-vision by the Western region government ostensibly for easy
administrative co-ordination. At first in 1959, the Nigeria Broadcasting Service was in
view of a constitutional change, and was upgraded to a corporation by the Western
government. The constitution had by this time permitted regional government to set up
their own broadcasting services.
Swinging into action, the western region went into partnership with a foreign based firm
called Overseas Redifussion. This was preceded in 1959 by a specifically designed
corporate name of a Western Nigerian Government Broadcast Corporation (WNBC),
which it gave to the up starting radio station, this foreign firm in 1959, therefore assisted
government in taking a step further to establish a television station. Hitherto, it had been
a radio station all through. Red Infusion Ltd in conjunction with the regional government
then set up the Western Nigeria Radio Vision Services Ltd, to facilitate the
commencement of television broadcasting.
The term “radio-vision”, as used here, implied that what he has always been concerned
with radio services alone would now been television services. This idea was by no means
revolutionary, first, for the government that brought the idea, and secondly, for the
people, whose exposure to modern inventions was merely by the grace of a regional
government loaded with strong visions. At this period, the idea of a radio, much more a
television service, was more of a tale from the moon to the other two regions in Nigeria,
namely the Northern region and the Eastern region. In fact, what later became NTA
Ibadan was the first television in Africa.
Brief History of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA)
The history of the NTA can be traced back to the history of the Western Nigeria
Television (WNTV) officially opened on 31, October 1959. The maiden broadcast was
made in Ibadan on 1 November, 1959. Being the first television station in Nigeria and
indeed the whole of Africa, it was highly coveted by other regional and federal
government.
In 1961, the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroon (NCNC) government of the
Eastern Region established the Eastern Nigeria Television (ENTV). This was followed by
the establishment of the Radio Television Service (NTS) on April 1, 1962. According to
Duyile (2005), the federal government made it quite clear that although the new stations
would first be restricted to Lagos, it would later established in Enugu, Ibadan and
Kaduna. However, following certain political developments in Nigeria thereafter which
culminated in the creation of states, the NTS changed its name to NBC-TV, and was
established in all states including Jos, Kano, Port Harcourt and Sokoto. Apart from these
federal controlled stations, the states themselves agitated for creation states-owned
television stations. According to Umeh (1989),
“The creation of new states caused a new wave of sectional consciousness
referred to as “statism”. Every state wanted its own facilities, a university,
a polytechnic, a college of education, a teaching hospital, its own radio
and television stations, and so on”.
Bendel state took the lead in this new wave of television acquisition and its state-owned
television broadcasting in Nigeria, with the promulgation of Decree 24 0f 1977, backdated to
1976. The Decree gave birth to the merging of all existing federal and state owned stations under
the NTA. Its establishment was the first attempt by the federal government to have a centrally
financed and coordinated television industry. It was born out of the successful experiment of
pooling together all the broadcasting agencies in the country. This resulted in the formation of
the Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON), to provide effective and coordinated coverage
for the second All-African Games hosted by Nigeria in 1973. With the successful takeover of all
television services in Nigeria, the federal government had the opportunity to nationalize
television programming. Duyile (2005:297) writes
This new chapter brought the “Network services” in which all the viewers in the
country are treated to the same programme on television screens. There is
therefore a national policy that has to be carried by all public television stations.
The network service of the NTA is a compulsory service to be observed by all
state television services. The 9pm news every evening on the NTA is viewed
nationwide.
The NTA was renamed in 1979 and called the NTA ACT. Interestingly, the 1979 constitution
gave the Nigerian president the power to allow state governments, organizations and individuals
to operate television stations, Anambra, Ondo, Bendel, Imo, Lagos, Plateau and Kano states
together with the 22 NTA stations (Umeh, 1989).
Since then, the NTA has grown in leaps and bounds with the proliferation of stations, not only in
the 36 states of the federation, but also in major towns across the states of the federation.
Although, there has tremendous growth in the number of television stations in Nigeria (federal
controlled, state-owned and private stations), the federal government dominates the television
landscape with 95 stations (one national channel and its 94 local affiliates) across the country,
one could say that the NTA has penetrated the Nigeria populace as shown by the slogan: NTA
the largest network in Africa.
Who Is A Youth?
Beegle (1965) defined youth as all who fall between the ages of 15 and 24 years. Braungart
(1974) simply defined youth as all who fall under the age of 30years.
Dreyfus (1972) uses the term students, youths and young people interchangeably and settled
down to define them as those people between the ages of 16 and 25 who are actively involved in
the world and are concerned with effecting change in their own lives and the world around them.
According to the International Labour Office Report on rural youths in Kenya (1968), the
definition of youths is restricted to the graduates from primary schools, but additionally, young
people in secondary schools, training centers, villages polytechnics, youth centers and
agricultural institutions.
Gachuchi (1974) believes that youth falls between the ages of 14 and 21. According to him, at 14
which is lower limit, youths enter puberty and can reproduce and may have sexual experiences
and hence can be questioned on such issues. He further looked at 21 as the upper limit because as
he observed several countries recognize this age as the age at which young people become
responsible legally for their actions without the endorsement of guardian or consent of parents.
Still on the attempt to answer who a youth is, Gills (1974) recalled the French and German
words; “garcon” and “knable” both refer to a boy as young as 6 and as old as 30 or 40. In both
countries, the term “boy” still carries traces of this original double meaning of “servant” and
“boy” more especially in Irish peasants who call unmarried property less men as boys regardless
of their age.
Ifeanyichukwu Okonkwo (1990), youths are usually a generational age grouping that share
common ideas, historical perspective, and are always influenced by a universal and unique
national and international experience. He said, “They are usually those young men and women
under the age of fifty as the case may be as per consideration in each nation”.
The Nigerian Youth
A Nigerian youth is characterized as a person who has a Nigerian father and can trace his
ancestry lineage to a village in Nigeria. He does not live in isolation. If he does, he will die. In
fact, if any other nation’s will quickly die in isolation, the Nigerian youth will die even quicker
because he never likes to be alone. Our culture encourages him to be with his father, mother,
brothers and sisters.
A Nigerian youth is characterized as a parson likely to show a trait of strong desire to move up
the social ladder of events. A Nigerian youth is a person who is still worrying about what he
would be in life tomorrow; he is mainly concerned about mundane things of the world, how to
change society as a whole to suit his taste of life. But, he is still materially dependent on his
parents or other adults and to some extent need adult supervision in his daily life activities.
A Nigerian youth often tends to identify with several aspects of adult life though depending on
his temperament. Many of them tend to identify with adults of strong characters who are
disciplined, successful, mentally alert and organized. Family stability as well as breast feeding is
very important to a Nigerian youth, so as to prepare the youth to reason like normal human being
instead of thinking like an animal; especially the untamed ones (Obasi, 2014).
1.2 Statement Of The Problem
Dayo (1999) said that without feedback uncertainty persists; feedback therefore enables
the sender and receiver of the information- that is the message, to feel more confident
about the accuracy of the message. It is speculated that most producers of television
programmes do not conduct research to measure the acceptability and effectiveness of
their programmes.
Since research is a systematic search for knowledge, the primary aim of this study is to
know the effect of entertainment programmes (especially on the youths).
1.3 Objectives Of The Study
The study has the following objectives:
1. The study aims at ascertaining the impact of television in making attitudinal changes
in youths in Enugu metropolis.
2. To let people know the indirect contributions made by entertainment programmes on
youth development in Enugu state.
3. To find out whether NTA Enugu’s entertainment programmes contributes negatively
or positively to youth behavior changes in Enugu metropolis.
4. To make recommendations where necessary and to see if these programmes can be
repackaged when its objectives are not achieved.
1.4 Research Questions
1. Is television as a medium of communicating messages capable of making attitudinal
changes in youths in Enugu metropolis?
2. What indirect contributions have entertainment programmes made on youth
development in Enugu state?
3. Does NTA Enugu’s entertainment programmes contribute negatively or positively to
youth behavioral changes in Enugu metropolis
4. Are the public especially the youths pleased with the entertainment programmes of
NTA Enugu network centre?
1.5 Significance Of The Study
This study will help researchers with more information on the impact of entertainment
programmes on youths in Enugu metropolis. It will be relevant in assisting students in
understanding the diversity of the broadcast media. It will provide relevant materials for
students and other researchers undertaking similar research.
1.6 Scope Of The Study
This research study will specifically focus on the study of variables like age, sex,
educational qualifications, socio-economic status etc that will determine or influence the
viewers understanding of these programmes.
This study will be focused on Enugu urban towns as its area of study. These areas have
been stratified thus;
? New haven
? Uwani/ Trans-Ekulu
? Government Reserved Area (GRA)
? Asata/ Ogui and
? Independence Layout
The researcher was constrained by the following handicaps in the course of her
investigation
a) Materials- reference materials
b) Financial constraints
c) Time frame
The essence of this research study is to primarily study the impact of entertainment
programmes on youths in Enugu metropolis. This research tends to focus on youths of
the urban towns for easy analysis of data. This will reduce cost and avoid
complexities that may arise as a result of having a very large population. But since in
most cases the characteristics of youths are generally similar, the research findings
will be generalized to include youths in the whole of Enugu state.
1.7 Definition Of Terms
Operational Definitions
Impact: The capacity to have a powerful effect on the character, development or
behavior of someone or something or affect itself.
Entertainment: a planned television programme designed to relax its audience.
Youths: a young adult between the ages of 14-30 years.
Enugu Metropolis: the urban towns of the capital of Enugu state in Nigeria.