LITERATURE REVIEW ASSESSING THE INFLUENCE OF WRSTERN TV PROGRAMS OF THE DRESS SENSE OF NIGERIA UNIVERSITY STUDENT

LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 INTRODUCTION
Society as a whole puts a lot of pressure on young individuals, both males and females, to dress according to society norms. When considering what is fashionable, trends are standardized as being influential on how young people should dress. Fashion styles are constantly changing and in order to keep up with popular innovations, young people especially students have to make the choice to either conform or resist them.
Personal tastes are significant, whether a person follows or repels a certain fashion trend. How young people express themselves through their clothing values seem to take precedence over fashion trends. Conversely, the media give an insight into how to dress. Western television programmes produce, create and promote multitudes of ideas and theories that have enormous influence students and their perceptions of themselves.

2.1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This research will adopt the Uses and Gratification Theory and The Social Learning Theory.

2.1.1 USES AND GRATIFICATION THEORY
The uses and gratification theory by Blumber and Katz’s identifies television viewing patterns in line with the needs and satisfaction of the targeted audience. It explains why students prefer certain programmes. The proponents of this theory say that users of the media generally take an active part in the communication process and are goal –oriented in their media usage. Infact, the users seek out sources that best satisfy their needs.
According to Griffin (2000), students have alternate choices to satisfy their needs. Students attend to, perceive and remember only information that is pleasurable to them and will in some ways help satisfy their needs since the need for satisfaction by the viewers changes with time. Thompson and Bryant (2002), opine that as the new century progresses, communication theorists are challenged to catch up and keep up.
A more humanistic approach of the uses and gratification theory stems from the fact that there are many ways students  use television. There are many reasons for using television as there are users themselves. The viewers have the right to decide how to use the television and how it will affect them.
The extent to which you seek gratification from any segment of the media (a programme type, a particular kind of content, or an entire medium) would be determined by the media, whereas the active audience view suggests that people make more active decisions about how to use the media. For most part, mass society theories tend to subscribe to a passive conception of audience, although not all passive audience theories can legitimately be called mass society theories.
Television has been accused of displacing reading time and thereby impeding intellectual ablates of students (Winn, 2002). The implication is that when television and reading compete for time and attention, television often gains mastery as the more attractive.
The influence of television in particular and media in general on the present day society cannot be overemphasized. West and Turner (2000) assert that the uses and gratification theory takes out the possibility that the media can have an unconscious influence on the viewer’s lives and the way they view the world generally.

2.1.2 SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
Albert Bandura exposed the social learning theory. He explained that people learn through observing others, behaviour, attitudes, and outcomes of those behaviours. Accordingly, most human behaviour is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviours are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action. The social learning theory explains human behaviour in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioural and environmental influences.

2.1.3 EMPIRICAL REVIEW
There is something that holds today’s students apart from the previous generation. At the click of a switch, they have access to a mind-boggling array of programmes on the television screen. Students in western countries have had this kind of option for many years, but it was only the arrival of satellite television that gave students in Nigeria that same kind of choice.
The media have a great impact on the way we act and think. It can have a deep influence on the behaviour of its audience. McKee (2009) posed a thought-provoking idea; he said that when people try to imitate something seen or heard, there is a difficulty in letting them distinguish between right and wrong. The teenagers and young people of today often mimic or imitate their role models blindly.
More often than not, what is highlighted in the entertainment industry is the wrong doings of celebrities whom the young people idolize. And since they are heroes in the youth’s minds, they are celebrated despite the bad behaviour they have been showing the public.
According to Dominick (2009), television has become the dominant medium for news and entertainment. Corroborating, Rodman (2006) submits that:
Television remains the most time-consuming activity, next to sleeping, and it is the world’s main source of news and information. It is the medium through which politics is conducted, and it is humanity’s main form of entertainment. It is the world’s most powerful sales tool.
Furthermore, Hanson (2005) states that in the past, people were limited to interacting with those whom they can see and hear face-to-face. But the coming of electronic media, and the television in particular, changed this. That is to say, people equally interact with television.
Torres (2006) says television has a triple condition in contemporary daily life: as a regular practice, as a structuring or modeling tool of daily life, and as a purveyor of content itself modeled from daily life. Corroborating, Obot (2009) submits that television is given credit for presenting ‘reality’ and other socio-political landmarks would definitely help the viewer to witness those events and retain the “life in his memory”.

DEFINITION OF SEXY
Today, sexiness is not only defined by how a person looks but it has infiltrated many different other parts of everyday life. Celebrities and models set unspoken standard for young people-students, especially-promoted the need for girls to look sexy. Seductive images of models in ads, music, and videos showing girls dancing in skirts the size of belts and even video gamer heroines flaunting skimpy outfits are considered a cultural norm in today’s twenty-first century lifestyle (Khidelkel, 2008). Some students have papered their walls with images of media models they lusted after or aspired to be (Brown, 2002).
Some University students are so carried away with television projection of reality that they adopt dressing styles that are nothing but outrageous. While some female students dress almost naked to school. They also learn, know and speak American slang’s more than the English language. These behaviours are in line with the behaviours of characters shown on most western television contents. The content of western culture is deemed to be competitive. A Harvard Professor puts it this way: “The culture of the “wild west” is individualities materialistic and philistine”.
Imitation of television realities of western nations by people of third nations as Nigeria was acknowledge and attributed to some major reason (Eziche, 2010). Some of the reasons include:
The continuing and increasing dependency of developing countries on rich industrialized nations for nearly all their communication equipment, technology skills and softwares.
The overwhelming inflow of news, television programmes, films, books and other cultural materials between developed and undeveloped ones with alien models and values.
The consequence this trend has for Nigeria and other third world countries over which television hegemony of the west dangles can be measured in terms of the number of people from Nigeria and other third world countries who perpetually seek to emigrate to Europe in order to experience and realize their impression of western cultures formulated through the television and construct perception to social reality, i.e. to give meaning to their projected self-image.
The media’s constant barrage of slender, scantily clad women and buff, muscular, tan and half-naked men reinforced the notion of the “ideal” male and female bodies, which is exactly the type of imagery that has a negative effect on adolescent. Students watch these western television programmes daily and in many ways use them as signifiers of what is “cool” and what is “hot” at any given time.
Some female students wear sleeveless tops, body hugs, spaghetti tops, off shoulders, miniskirts, dress and skirt with slit above the knees, tight trousers and dresses, T-shirts and Jean that carry immoral messages and clothes that reveal sensitive parts of the body  such as the burst, chest etc. Some male students wear shirts that carry immoral messages, long and bushy hairs and beards, etc.
Egwin (2010) referred to indecent dressing as the attitude of someone, male or female that dresses to showoff parts of the body such as the breasts, buttocks or even the underwear particularly those of the ladies that need to be covered. This exposure is obviously a deliberate act to look sensuous, tantalizing and stimulating so as to draw attention of the opposite sex and is more prevalent among singles (unmarried women and men).
This form of dressing is provocative (Olori, 2003) students copy these dress patterns from western television programmes.
The above submissions are pointers to know how powerful the television is. Television has the ability to make or a mar a society. And it all depends on how the producers are able to manipulate the content for specific purposes. The medium has the capability to make the viewer replicate actions they got exposed to; either in part or whole. That is why television has become a very strong medium for advertising and other persuasive communications.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?
According to Lagerway (1992), in his article, mass media and values, the influence of media on they outh is no long a matter of conjecture. It has the potential for good as well as for bad. According to him, there is a need to train teachers to understand deeply the role of media in the youth’s environment. Meeting this need could be a giant step towards forming the character and personality of students. Thus the media can be turned into a positive instrument for developing values.
The question now is how to inculcate these values to the youths of today. One of the ways is that teachers should be prudent and in their critical role in molding them. Sine, they have a critical role, the schools and teachers must be together in integrating mass media education in the curriculum and so as to influence students on what newspapers, magazines and books to read, including music to listen to and watch.
This also estimates the roles of parents. According to Udoaka (2000), “Effective communication means message actualization that is, presenting a message in ways which they can achieve what they are capable of achieving”. In this light, the form of any television presentation encapsulates the essence of the presentation. That is to say that the form entails the ways they are packaged to capture and sustain attention. To do this means that all ingredients necessary to make a production palatable should be infused in it through a particular approach that is, its form. “The structure in which the significant vision appears is what we all form” (Akpan, 1987).
Further the form has to adapt to the context of the situation for which the production is engaged. But it has to be stated that different situation require different approaches and as such television productions about the situations take different forms. That is why there are different programmes on television. And these programmes take different shapes which manifests as their forms. In the light of the above, Thorburn (2008) establishes that:
The physical realities of the television environment, the help to explain its fundamental genre-sitcom, family drama, courtroom drama, soap opera medical show, all of which rely on dialogue and argument, physiological interaction, interior intimate settings, close encounters and so on.
The import of the above submission is that programmes take genres-forms-to communicate certain message. However the communication has to consider the situational demands of the issues it tackles. To do this, the cultural attributes come in force.
Udoaka (2000) submits that:
The attention-holding power of these forms derives from the ways the details about the messages to be communicated are selected, arranged, emphasized, contrasted, as well as creation of climax and resolution……..
When mass media messages are presented in this way, we go beyond transmission to communication of messages.
When we say communication of messages we mean sharing of meaning and not mere information transfer. This brings the issue of culture to the fore. According to Baran (2010):
Creation and maintenance of a more or less common culture occurs through communication, including mass communication. When we talk to our friends; when a parent raises a child; when religious leaders instruct their followers; when teachers teach; when grandparents pass on recipes; when politicians campaign; when media professional produce content that we read, listen to, or watch, meaning is being shared and culture is being constructed and maintained.
Corollary to the above, every television production considers the cultural implications of the issues being addressed by the programme forms. If a local television focuses on portraying American values instead of those in Nigeria; it will be an aesthetic Munomer, culture-wise. For instance “most of western cultures are highly individualistic whereas traditionally other cultures are much more collective (Adlor, Proctor and Towne; 2005) like in Africa and to some extent Asia.
In this regard, programmes are expected to represent, portray and inculcate cultural values of the people who make up the viewers. Well manipulated it centres aesthetic effects which will obviously contribute to the actual appreciation of the message contents. More often, the viewers depend on television to know how things are done, like eating habits, public discussion methods and mode of dressing. Then, if the culture, dress pattern etc he will be portraying some values extraordinarily different from the cultural expectation of the people.
Throwing more light; Torres (2006) says “television has a triple condition in contemporary daily life: as a regular practice, as a structuring or modeled from daily life. The media are central in provision of ideas and images which the people use in interpreting and understanding a great deal of their everyday experience (Ezichi, 2010). More specific work relating to television is seen in Walter Lippmen’s theory of pictures. He says that what we watch on television and other media form images in our heads. They shape attitudes, perception behaviours. Herbert Blummer in Black Bryant of (1992), provides a general picture of how viewing films on television influences young people their everyday behaviour, dressing, mannerism, speech, emotions, ideas about romance, ambitions and career plans. He shows how young people imitate cowboys, cops, television stars, and every conceivable hero and villain they see on television.

THE NEGATIVE EFFECT OF TELEVISION VIEWING ON NIGERIA YOUTHS

Many scholars using different perspectives have argued that television exerts a significant alienating impact or influence on the indigenous culture and self perception of an individual. The accumulative effect of which is the depreciating of the Nigerian self image or cultural identity and identification with the constructed self. A process referred to by social and clinical physiologists as self hatred (Hatchen, 1987).   
Tan el. Al. (1987), in their study of the Impact of American Television on Philippines show that frequent airing of foreign a content from America Europe has led to the depreciating of the self-image of Philippines and corresponding appreciation and the desire to behave like them. Many criticism have also been leveled against the films shown in Africa television today.
The Nigeria media audience especially the youth is caught in a mesh of confusion of values. This is seen in their mode of dressing, speech mannerism, socio-cultural life. What is obtainable in Nigeria media landscape is the dependency syndrome where they rely heavily on the offsprings made available by the foreign media in augmenting their local sources in news contents, entertainment, music and programming. The distressing fact is that they become models that display the various wares without any opportunity to refuse or choose (Montentant, 1999).

THE DESTRUCTION OF NIGERIA CULTURES
Most western television programmes in Nigeria have violent content and contribute to the rise of violence in campuses in Nigeria. According to Maduka (1984), Nigeria cultural values are being just eroded by foreign ones. He regrets the fact that these seem not against these foreign invades that make matters worse. He further points out that Nigerians especially youths, adopt western values in their ways of eating, dressing, speaking and so on.
Most students get carried away with the television projection of reality that they adopt hair and dressing styles that are nothing but outrageous. Most female students dress almost naked to school. Students also learn, know and speak American slang more than English language. These attitudes are in line with what most young people view on western television programmes (Ezichi 2010).
Kennedy (1993) is of the opinion that the culture of the “wild west” is individual materialistic and philistine. Imitation of television realities of western nation can be attributed to some of these reasons:
The overwhelming inflow of news, television programmes, films, bopoks and other cultural materials between developed and underdeveloped ones with alien models and values.    
The continuing and increasing dependency of developing countries on rich industrialized nation for nearly all their communication equipment, technology skills and softwares.
The consequence this tend had for Nigeria and other third world countries over which the television hegemony of the west dangles can be measured in terms of the number of people from Nigeria and other third world countries who fully seek to emigrate to western countries inorder to experience and realize their impression of western cultures formulated through television and construct perception of reality that is to give meaning to their projected self-image.
Media agenda setting and framing
Media are in a unique position to get people thinking and talking about specific issues, while keeping other issues from the public eye (Brown, 2002). Agenda setting and framing theories propose that the media tell people what is important in the world around them and how to think about the events and people who inhibit that world (Kosikki, 1993). People use the stories they see both in the news and in entertainment media as reference points about what’s important and to compare what they already know, or think they know, about what’s good and bad and what should be done about problems (Brown, 2002). The result often reinforces stereotypes and helps define what is considered appropriate and inappropriate behaviour in the culture (Iyengar, 1991).

TELEVISION’S EFFECT ON THE WAY WE DRESS
Many viewers subconsciously absorb the things they watch on television and then enact them, knowing or unknowingly, in their own lives. Such an absorption can also be seen in terms of appearances, namely how people choose to look and dress themselves. The hair styles nowadays tend to be a wide range of choices for all genders. In terms of clothes, men who choose to be viewed as men will typically war jeans, pants, suits or the like. These are not that many places in the world, if any, where you will find a man who chooses to be viewed as a man wearing skirt. Also women in the western world who want to go to a party or out clubbing wear short dresses or other forms of “sexy” clothes along with a good amount of makeup. The term “sexy” is subjective but that subjectivity for quite a lot of women is affected by what they seem women on television wear. Examples would be of fashion shows by famous actresses to movie premiers or award shows.