Influence of Big Brother Africa Television Reality Show on Youths
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the study
The general objective of this study is to determine the influence of Big Brother Naija on youths. While the specific objective are to:
- Determine the level of viewership of BBA Reality TV Show among undergraduate students of Ebonyi state university, Abakailiki, Nigeria.
- Ascertain the gratifications the students derive from viewing BBA.
- Determine the influence of the viewership on the moral conducts of the students.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Conceptual review
Reality TV Show: Meaning and Overview
Reality TV shows definitions by various scholars such as Roscoe (2001) and Malekoff (2005) reflect that they are programmes where real people are often placed in extraordinary situations where their every moment is recorded as they react to their surroundings. It is a genre of television programme in which real-life occurrences are transmitted unscripted. Usually TV cast used for such programmes are unknown to the public. It is a type of “television programme that document unscripted situations and actual occurrences, and often feature a previously public unknown cast (Wikipedia n.d.). Roscoe (2001) notes that in reality TV shows, the conventional boundaries between fact and fiction, drama and documentary and between the audience and the text are blurred (Chikafa & Mateveke 2012). This genre of entertainment has become the latest fan favourite especially among youths world over (sack, 2003; Frisby, 2004; Howley, 2004) cited in (Chikafa & Mateveke 2012), and has gradually made inroads in Africa. Andrejevic, (2004), 2005; and Kilborn, 2003) cited in Biltereyst (2004) agree that reality television is an umbrella term that encompasses “various factual television formats with a high reality claim, it stresses the actions and emotions of real people (non-actors), often using a combinations of ‘authentic’ (e.g police, security or surveillance images), and staged images (e.g. fictionalised reconstructions, post-faction interviews)” (Chikafa & Mateveke 2012).
Reality television is significantly proving to be a favourite among the youth – particularly those who fall within the 18-25 age range (Chikafa & Mateveke 2012). The duo cite Baumgardner, (2003; Brasch, (2003) and Hiltbrand, (2004) as saying that such TV shows that hitherto exhibited in the United States and many Western countries have now flooded our TV stations as we now have the African versions of the American Fear Factor, The Biggest Loser and the American Idols.
Nigeria also has ‘The Gulder Ultimate Search, The MTN Project Fame, Nigeria Got Talents, Glo Naija Sings, Maltina Dance All, among others’. Other African countries also have versions of these shows under different names. One of the biggest and perhaps the most popular reality TV shows in the African continent is the Big Brother Africa with an estimated viewership of more than forty million across Africa (http://www.bigbrotherafrica.com).The subject has continued to gain scholarly attention in recent time. VanZoonen & Aslama (2006) had looked at the history of Big Brother, its significance to the media and how it derives strength from its generic hybridity. Andrejevic (2004) connects the technological innovations of Big Brother to the wider cultural work of ‘being watched’ and associates the surveillance culture to the popularity of Big Brother. Roscoe (2001) specifically notes that Big Brother is constructed around performance because cameras force the participants to perform for the audiences as well as the other housemates so as to avoid nomination. Roscoe also shows how Big Brother assumes its audience to be highly media literate and adolescents and young adults seem to fit this category of audiences. All these play a significant role in debating the localisation of Big Brother in Africa (see Chikafa & Mateveke 2012).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARACH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The study relied on social survey. This was justified by the fact that surveys which investigate problems in realistic settings rather than artificial conditions presented by screening rooms and laboratories, make survey reliable (Wimmer and Dominick, 1983: 102).
Sources of Data
The data for this study were generated from two main sources; Primary sources and secondary sources. The primary sources include questionnaire, interviews and observation. The secondary sources include journals, bulletins, textbooks and the internet.
Population and sampling of the study
A study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitute of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description (Prince Udoyen: 2019). Using purposive sampling technique, A total of 350 copies of the questionnaire were distributed to students of the four campuses of the university. This size was determined from the 23,437 total population of the institution using the Australian calculator. The cluster multistage and simple random sampling techniques were used to select respondents.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Discussion of findings
Research Question 1: What is the viewership level of BBN Reality TV Show among undergraduate students of Ebonyi state university, Abakailiki, Nigeria?
Findings of research question one show high viewership level of BBN among the students studied. This finding is consistent with that of Oloka-Onyango (2011) which argues that only few programmes like BBN in the history of television viewership in the continent have attracted such extensive audience with estimates put at over thirty million. The finding however disagrees with that of Ozule and Mohammed (2013) which suggests that because BBN is not shown on terrestrial television but on selected cable channels, viewership of the programme is restricted to a selected elites and middle class audience who can afford the high subscription rate.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusion
This study has examined Big brother and its influence on youth of Nigeria, focusing on undergraduate students of Ebonyi state university, Abakaliki, Nigeria. In the course of the study, adequate data were generated and carefully analysed. From the findings, the study concludes that BBN reality TV show has the propensity of sloping the moral views and sense of judgement and attitude of young people towards decency, sexuality, morality, dressing, language, respect to elders and indigenous cultures, and perception about women and violence against them. BBN may also be teaching skills of kidnapping and inadvertently encouraging cohabitation among unmarried young people, and ensuing in the rising cases of rape, gangsterism and rascality in the society, as well as drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, spread of sexually transmitted diseases, abortion and youth mortality, among others.
In the 21st century, reality television has dominated our screens, it has become an essential part of our lives and entertainment. Reality television is degenerating our culture. It negatively impacts the viewers of the new generation when limited “reality” is present that occasionally is scripted and edited for entertainment purposes. When reality shows are interpreted as “reality”, the viewers’ viewpoints and their actions are affected.
Our youth tends to think, reenact, and endure the characters they perceive, enabling them to lose their sense of vital thinking and true emotions towards actual situations. The actions of these shows are infiltrating negative portrays of body image, graphic violence, and diminishing one’s actual viewpoint of reality. With these following aspects it is concluded that realty television is negatively impacting our society therefore it should be censored.
Recommendations
Arising from the findings and conclusion, the study recommends:
- Mass education on media ratings and encouraging producers of BBN to adhere to the principles of professional media scheduling, programming and content placement.
- Campaign for restructuring and resuscitating of the programme to reflect more indigenous African cultures and serve as a window to showcase indigenous African culture to the outside world. This view is supported by the suggestions of the Nigerian noble Laureate Prof Wole Soyinka cited in the Daily Independent newspaper editorial of June 23, 2013, that “the incursion of the negative and dubious alien cultural values and tendencies in Big Brother Africa can be best countered by the strengthening and exposure of indigenous cultures, ideally in innovative ways.”
References
- Andrejevic, M. (2004). Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
- Baumgardner, N. (2003). Reality game shows thrive. Retrieved November 10, 2003 from, dailybeacon.utk.edu/article.php/9243
- Big Brother Africa (n.d). In Wikipedia. Retrieved on August 10, 2014
- from htt://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Brother…
- Biltereyst, D. (2004), Media Audiences and the Game of Controversy, In I. Bondebjerg & P. Golging (Eds.), European Culture and the Media (pp. 117-137), Portland, OR: Intellect Books.
- Brasch, W.M. (2003). Reality blights. Retrieved November 20, 2003, from, http:// facstaff.Bloomu. Edu/brasch/abc.htm
- Campbell. K. (2004). “Terrorist attacks on America diminished the popularity ofreality TV, “ In K Balkin (Ed). Reality TV (pp. 20-21), Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press.
- Chikafa, R. and Mateveke, P. (n.d). The ‘Africa’ in Big Brother Africa: ‘Reality’ TV and African identity. Available at:
- https://www.academia.edu/2103540/The_Africa_in_Big_Brother_Africa_Reality_TV_and _African_identity_by_Rosemary_Chikafa_and_Pauline_Mateveke. Accessed on 24 April, 2015
