Broadcast Media and Campaign Against Child Abuse; A Study of Abia State

Broadcast Media and Campaign Against Child Abuse; A Study of Abia State

Chapter One

Objectives of the study

The study has the following objectives, they are:

To find out the kind of programs relating to child abuse in broadcast media.
To find out how popular these programmes are with the residents in Aba of Abia state.
To find out the reactions of the Aba residents of Abia state to these
To find out how the programmes have helped in discouraging the practice of child abuse among the residents of Abia state.

CHAPTER TWO

INTRODUCTIION:

This chapter is a review of the related studies to the topic: Influence of Africa Independent Television as a Watchdog against Child Abuse with a particular focus to Child Trafficking”. The chapter is organized according to the following headings.

The Concept of Child Abuse

A child means every human being below the age of 18 years. The “word” child is also defined differently in different cultures, and the definition may not be based on the age (World Health Organization). The Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (New 7th Edition) defines child abuse as the crime of harming a child in a physical, sexual, or emotional way. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Department for Children and Families (DCF) defined child abuse as the physical, sexual, or emotional maltreatment or neglect of a child. The organization also listed four major categories of child abuse which include; physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect or child neglect and emotional abuse.

Physical Abuse

Physical abuse is any non accidental injury to a child Such as hitting, kicking, slapping, shaking, burning, biting, throwing, and paddling. Physical abuse comes in numerous degrees and forms. Uzoeze (2005) asserts that one of the most extreme forms of physical abuse is the murder of infants. This is committed in most parts of the World Calvert (1993) opines that physical abuse is characterized by physical injury. For example, bruises and features resulting from punching, heating, kicking biting, burning and so on.

Another form of physical abuse is corporal punishment on the excuse of discipline. This occurs in many forms such as smoking or beating children with belt or stick, pulling or grabbing a child‟s ears and sometimes giving knocks on the head Giovanni (1971) refers to child physical abuse as “social murder”. This according to him includes exploitation of the child‟s time and energy through street hawking and excessive house work.

Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent abuses a child for sexual stimulation. It is the participation of a child in a sexual act aimed toward the physical gratification or the financial profit of the person committing the act. Platt (2002) observes that thousands of children are sexually abused daily. Globally, sexual abuse is seen as the worst kind of gender based violence, “directed at children at the global level. Hopper (2004) observes that the rate of sexual abuse in USA as reported, range from 4.87% at the lowest to over 29%. A report equally shows that many children who experience sexual intercourse are forcefully abused.

Child Neglect

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Child neglect is generally defined as an act of omission of children, specially the failure of a parents or person legally responsible for a child‟s welfare to provide for his\her basic needs and proper level of care with medical attention or supervision. According to Uzoeze (2005) child neglect could jeopardize the child‟s physical intellectual or emotional development. Opera,(2001). Confirms that in Nigeria hundreds of children is seen selling variety of things ranging from groundnuts to vegetable oil when they should have been at school learning. Children provide services in various industrial set ups .Children in urban areas are quickly caught up in daily struggle for survival and material gain. In a study in the sun newspaper, it was found that children abandonment, sexual abuse, child neglect, vagrant, kidnapping and hawking were the most reported forms of child abuse and neglect.

Nzewi (1988) found that hawking by boys and girls are widespread parents clearly recognizes that the practice holds dangers for children. According to him, a systematic survey of cases of sexual abuse of children in three major towns in Nigeria indicated that 60% involved girls below the age of 12. Scanlon etal (2002) reports that in Bolivia, the poorest country in Latin America over 44% of the children work in the mines. These children for long hours a day and under very high temperatures. Most times, they carry minerals loads that are above their physical capacities. Besides, they usually come into contact with toxic substances such as nitrates and poisonous gases. In Guatemala, more than 155% of children are engaged in force labor. Some of them work in dangerous occupations like street vending; refuse recycling with little salaries.

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

INTRODUCTION

This chapter described the method of research design, population of the study, sampling techniques/sample size, description of research instrument, validity of data gathering instrument, method of data collection, and method of data analysis.

Research Design

The research design adopted for this work was the survey, which involved, sampling of opinion of different people using questionnaire in order to get information on what is being studied. According to Berger (2000, p.187) survey is a research method which researchers use to get information about certain groups of people who are representative of some larger group of people of interest to them.

Population of the Study

A population is the aggregate of all the cases that conform with some designated set of specifications. Nwosu (2006, p.49).views Population as the total number of elements within the given environment which a researcher is set to survey. The population of this study is 2,245,000, made up of the residents of Aba Abia state.

Sampling Technique/Sample Size

Sampling technique refers to the method of sampling which specifies how elements will be drawn from the population. Using the purposive sampling technique, the researcher purposively selected a sample size of 150 respondents. Therefore, the sample size for this study is 100 respondents.

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA PRESENTATIONAND ANALYSIS

Introduction

The aim of this study was to determine the influence of Africa Independent Television as a watchdog against child abuse. The chapter is concerned with the presentation and analysis of data collected through the use of questionnaire distributed to the respondents. One hundred copies of questionnaire were distributed and 100 copies were retrieved. This represented a response rate of 100%.

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

Introduction:

The main objective of this study was to determine the ‟‟Influence of Africa Independent television as a watch dog against child abuse: A Study of AIT/Abia state. Survey research design was adopted using the questionnaire for the gathering of data. Following the analysis of data and discussion of findings, this chapter presented the summary of findings, conclusion and recommendation.

Summary of Findings

The findings showed that:

That (AIT) has relevant programmes aired on its broadcasting stations that discouragechild
That the audience preferred IZOZO because it made more impact on them as adrama
Thatthe programmes on Child Abuse broadcast on broadcast media have helped to reduce of Child Abuse.
That the federal government has shown graet concern about the ill effect of Child Abuse, and this has made it pass the children‟s Rights Acts of (2003) and thetrafficking in person
(Prohibition) law enforcement and Administrative Act,2003(otherwisecalled NATIP ACT).

Conclusion

This study has been able to demonstrate that the media, particularly television have helped a great deal in creating awareness on the rights of the child and dangers of abuse in the society. It has also been advanced that what remains is the translation of this sense of awareness into favorable ways and manner of handling and treating children.

Recommendations

Base on the findings and conclusions of this study, the following recommendations were made:

Governmentshould embark on public enlightenment campaigns to educate the public on the social dangers of child abuse.
Allforms of child abuse should be taken as serious
Governmentshould promulgate laws against the abuse of children
Government and non governmental agencies should create awareness campaign exercisesto discouraged parents from leasing out their
The general society should help government to eradicate all forms of immoral activitiesagainst innocent children.
The legislatures should pay much attention to the existing laws which concern the right‟sof African child and make amendments where necessary to stop the gross exploitation of the African child.
The Nigerian government should try as much as possible to implement all the povertyalleviation programmes with adequate funding and make sure that they reach the grass
Government should make laws that would protect the rights of the

References

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Calvert, S. (1993). Violence Towards Youth: A new perspective. Journal of Social Issues.
Dyorough, D. (1984). The Major Routes towards the Abandonment and Abuse Of Children in Africa. Keynote Address presented at the 1^st International Workshop on Child Abuse in Africa held at Enugu, Nigeria.
Dyorouhg, S. (1986).Child Abuse and the Right of the Nigerian Child.
Ebigbo, E. (1985). Children’s and Women’s rights in Nigeria: A Wake-up Call, Situation Assessment and Analysis. National Planning and United Nation International Children Emergency Fund.
Ebigbo, P. & Izuora, E. (1985). Adolescent Health in the Caribbean.
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