Literary, Cultural and Moral Contexts of Arewa24 Television Programmes on Selected Registered Youth Organisations in Nigeria

Introduction

One of the functions of the mass media is to preserve and promote cultural heritage from one generation to another (Laswell, 1948). However, cultural imperialism has infiltrated some traditional values in Nigeria, chief among which are, communicating in indigenous languages, dressing, communalism, respect for elders, kindness to others, etc., all of which depict moral standards. According to Clark (2019), most religions are unequivocal on the issue of morality. Morals refer to compliance with established norms and values of a society such as kindness to human and animals, respect to parents and elders, being truthful, etc. Jones (2021) describes morality as the human distinction between what is right and wrong about actions and thoughts that cumulatively give individuals their identity as good or bad people. Lawin (2020) opines that morality is what societies determine to be “right” and “acceptable.” Morality is gradually attained through the process of development. Many internal and external factors are involved in shaping moral acts and youth are usually affected by social changes. According to Kolucki and Lemish (2011), younger ones believe in social interaction through which they learn new things from their surroundings; including media environment, and adopt changes rapidly. In the cause of this assimilation and acculturation, their morality is depleted and this has consequences to the development of their societies.

The media, especially television, impact on character formation of viewers. Lamenting the negative impact of television programming on character and personality formation, Njoku (2016) observed that while television was used to promote decency in the past, contemporary television contents ‘have abandoned the culture of decency and have been engulfed in indecent manner of dressing … Programmes that are presented nowadays are full of pornographic images that can easily corrupt the younger generation . Most disturbingly, some media contents have adverse effects on the emotion, psychic, moral behaviour and cognitive development of their viewers leading to cultivation of habits that may account for the high rate of criminal activities and restiveness experienced in Nigeria and across the globe (Njoku, 2016, Shittu, 2018). The world is exposed to a unified media consumption pattern as a result of continuous advancement in communication technology which has birthed satellite televisions and their dissemination of foreign contents in foreign languages. However, the Equal Access International (EAI) launched the world’s first and only Hausa-language free to air satellite television channel, Arewa24, in 2014 to foster human development, empowerment and prevention of violence and other vices (EAI, 2021). Bowers (2017)’s investigation of the effect of Arewa24 programming on viewers’ tolerance, violence and women empowerment in northern Nigeria revealed significant effect between the television station programmes and attitude of women in northern Nigeria.  This is similar to the findings of Abdulbaqi (2016) who reported a significant positive relationship between films beamed on DSTV’s African Magic and matrimonial harmony in North-Central Nigeria. However, not much has been documented on the impact of the programmes on an all Hausa speaking channel, Arewa24 on the morality of youth in North-West Nigeria.

Hence, this study is aimed at:

1. examining the impact of producing programmes in Hausa Language on viewership of Arewa24 programmes among members of selected youth organisations in Zamfara State,
2. determining the cultural and moral contexts of Arewa24 Television Programmes on selected registered youth organisations in Zamfara State,
3. investigating the perception of members of selected youth organisations in Zamfara State on the gratifications derived from Arewa24 television programmes,
4. establishing if viewership of selected Arewa24 programmes enhance good character formation among youths in Zamfara State.

WRITE RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Theoretical Framework

The study is pinned on the philosophies on the Uses and Gratification Theory and Cultivation Theory.

Uses and Gratification Theory

The theories of mass communication exist to depict reality and provide insight into how people consume, engage with and utilise media contents. In other words, messages contained in media may have an impact on the audience while the audience may also shape media contents. Accordingly, early media studies focused on the use of mass media in propaganda and persuasion and ascribed absolute power to the media in achieving the intended goals. Thus, leading to what is known as the direct effects model of media studies, differently referred to as the Magic Bullet Theory and Hypodemic Needle Model. These theories assumed that audiences passively accepted media messages and would exhibit predictable reactions in response to those messages.

However, journalists and researchers soon looked to behavioral sciences to help figure out the effect of mass media content and communications on society. Lazarsfeld, Berelson and Gaudet (1948) demystified the acclaimed all powerful effect of the media by introducing the “Two-step Flow Model” or “Minimal Effects”. This led to an evolution of theories that work to illuminate patterns of media influence among which is the Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT) (Blumler & Katz, 1974). By assumption, UGT relies on two principles about media users. First, it characterizes media users as active in the selection of the media they consume and not mere passive consumers.  Second, that the consumers are aware of their reasons for selecting different media options and that their senses of satisfaction would be based on how well the chosen option(s) met their specific needs (Papacharissi, 2009). Blumler and Katz (1974) reported that people use the media to escape from problems (diversion), make up for emotional and physical interpersonal connections (personal relationships), to gain personal identity with media characters who shape their lives and values, and lastly, to provide their information needs (surveillance).

Prior to 2014 when Arewa24 provided Hausa speakers with an all-Hausa speaking channel, the non-English proficient Hausa speakers had limited choices of internent enabled programmes. Arewa24 availed them an equality platform to gratify their informational, entertainment, identification and relationship needs. The channel provided them with a comfortable language environment that they could easily relate with. However, critics have observed that, despite the people centred nature of the UGT, some users may neither be passive nor active.  It is also criticised for lacking explanatory power for causal relationships (McQuail, 1994). Katz, Blumler and Gurevitch, (1973-1974)noted that the theory relied heavily on self-reports which are, by nature, based on personal memory which can be problematic (Nagel, Hudson & Abowd, 2004). As such, the respondents might inaccurately recall their behaviour in media use and thus distortion might occur in the study.

Based on this view, this study hypothesised that:

H_o1: There is no significant relationship between viewership of Arewa24 programmes and formation of good morals.

Cultivation Theory

Clearly, television offers a plethora of ideas and conceptions on a variety of social and cultural dynamics like race, gender, sexuality, etc. Over a period of time, a fixed image of various groups of people is formed and viewers start to absorb these ideas which they then use as a map to navigate through life. This constant exposure to the media content cultivates specific values, beliefs, attitudes and desires in people. The cultivation theory concentrates on long-term effects of exposure on both adults and children rather than on short-term effect on attitudes and opinions (Anaeto, Onabajo & Osofeso, 2008). Precisely, the cultivation theory was proposed by Gerbner in 1976. The theory proposes that, people who watch television frequently are more likely to be influenced by the messages from the world of television as it defines their notion of the ‘mean world’. Television is, therefore, considered to contribute independently to the way people perceive social reality. Consequently, those who watch television for four or more hours a day are labeled heavy television viewers and those who watch for less than four hours per day, according to Gerbner are categorised as light viewers.  Heavy viewers are exposed to more violence and therefore are affected by the Mean World Syndrome, an idea that the world is worse than it actually is, thus, creating a homogeneous and fearful populace (Griffin, 2012) 

Some scholars, (Anaeto, Onabajo & Osifeso, 2008: 104) agreed with the Gabner, Gross, Morgan and Signorielli (1999)’s position that heavy television viewing distorts perception of the world of reality, making it seem to be what it is not. Exposure to television strengthens the position that moral values could be influenced positively or negatively depending on the programmes and the weight of viewership. In other words, frequency of viewership of Arewa24 programmes by various demographic segments of the society have implications on the moral standards of the viewers. However, some critics have argued that, cultivation theory treats media consumers as fundamentally passive, focusing on the patterns of media messages instead of individual responses to those messages (Vinney, 2019). Based on these assumptions, this study hypothesised that:

H_°2: There is no significant relationship between preference for Arewa24 programmes and cultivation of moral values among youths in Zamfara State.

Conceptual Review

Evolution of Arewa24 Television Channel

In 2014, Equal Access International (EAI), a nongovernmental organisation launched the world’s first Hausa-language free to air 24/7 satellite television channel called Arewa24. The major aim of the initiative was to have peace building programmes rendered in the native language of the target audience, to counter violent extremism at the programme’s core. Essentially, the mission of establishing Arewa24 and its production arm was to fill a glaring void of authentic, locally-produced and high-quality Hausa language entertainment and lifestyle programming that reflects pride in Northern Nigerian’s positive values, life, culture, music, film, art, cooking and sports. The channel amplified the rich and complex Northern Nigeria culture featuring shows that empowered women, addressed deep-rooted socio-political norms, featured emerging musicians and artists, sports, magazine talk shows, and dramas. Alongside the production of top-quality entertainment and lifestyle programming, Arewa24’s commercial operation secured advertising deals with major global brand such as Coca-Cola, Procter and Gamble, and Unilever.

The local team also launched a robust social media platform enabling the content to be made available on YouTube and creating a platform for viewers to engage with the programming, providing critical community feedback about the programming that pushed for tolerance, peace, and acceptance from viewers across the globe. Consequently, the impact of the project (Arewa24) reaches 80 million households, over 95,000 YouTube followers, over 640,000 Facebook Followers in both Nigeria, West Africa and globally (Arback, 2020). The signals from the channel is received through its Eutelsat satellite free-to-air broadcast, on the Star Times pay TV bouquet (channel#138) the two Multichoice payTV platforms, DStv (channel #261) and GOtv (channel #101), and on the Canal+ payTV service (channel #285) in Niger, Chad and Cameroun. The programmed are also transmitted on in local Nigerian channels such as: TVC, AIT, Silverbird, and NTA, (Equal Access International, 2021)

Television Programming and Viewership in Nigeria

Television is an audio-visual channel that uses the symbols it disseminates to influence attitudes and pattern of behaviour of its viewers. The content of television draws its believeability and wide acceptability from its audio-visual, realistic, flexible and instantaneous properties. Apuke and Dogari (2017) observed that, ever since the television came into existence, it has remained the most influential medium among the mass media and can be considered a credible source of information. The reason being the full colour, action packed, audio and visual strength, combination of actors/actresses as well as presenters. This makes Television a realism medium to the audience. It carries the audiences along through drama, film, documentaries, and other beautiful presentations and shows thereby gratifying their needs for entertainment, education, information and identity. Television viewership refers to the number of persons viewing the programmes of a given television station at a particular point in time (Agbonifoh, 2016). In the context of a media industry being disrupted by the influence of technology, television has managed to retain, if not strengthen, its appeal to the public with increasing number of viewers and increasingly interesting programmes.

Role of Television Programming on the Lives of Youth

Generally speaking, media, especially the television medium, have influence on the lives of the youths in different dimensions, although other agents have been confirmed to contribute to changing the morality and learning attitudes of the youth. Njoku (2016) noted that:

…Unfortunately, people are carried away by the pleasure of television without cross examining the negative influence of television on our lives especially with particular reference to the youths. A situation where the young people could spend three to four hours watching television movie or videos could justify the fact that home videos/movies viewing among young people have engendered myriads of bad habits and behaviours (Njoku, 2016, p. 185).

Supporting this view, Abdulbaqi (2016), noted that television, film and their contents affect the way the receivers think and see the world. Similarly, Alabi (2017), maintained that television is used as a tool to promote development and also to create awareness and mobilize citizens towards developmental goal. White (2017), opined that television is a potent medium for preserving local policy, local heritage and observing cultural diversity. Gologot (2017), inferred that, though not free from causing negative effects, the television has the power to engage its viewers in a very challenging travel: in a world of unlimited possibilities, in a world where all is nearer than we can imagine. Contrarily, Krijnen (2011) noted that: "even though there are ample voices arguing for the importance of television for building a moral civil society, television is often assumed to have a negative influence on its audience's morality."  

Conceptions of Morality and Moral Conducts

Morality is conceived by Killen and Smetana  (2015) as a central aspect of social life that poses enduring questions about how individual’s  psychological needs for autonomy and attachment to groups and society can be met while also ensuring the integrity, dignity, and fair treatment of others.  Haidt (2008) argued that, moral systems are interlocking sets of values, practices, institutions, and evolved psychological mechanisms that work together to suppress or regulate selfishness and make social life possible. Therefore, given the power of television to manipulate the minds of its audience through its programmes, it is worthy to examine how well it instills positive moral attitudes in its viewers.

Television Programming and Character Formation

The contents of television are very potent as tools for character formation.  As noted by Onabajo and M’bayo (2008), television has both intellectual and emotional appeal with which it speaks to the individual intimately, just as it lends itself to group reception. Thereby, making it easy for the medium to influence behaviour at individual and group levels. Parenting-Firstcry.com (2019) opined that, television builds character and personality. It also asserts that the medium has the power to change attitudes and perspectives towards life. But on moral decadence, Callister (2015), averse that, the medium abandoned the culture of decency and have been engulfed with indecent manners of dressing especially with the programmes that it presents to the public. Thus, accusing fingers are pointed at television for bastardising culture and eroding the traditional values, such as morality. For instance, Apuke (2016) observed a recurring change  in the mode of dressing and clothing style of the younger population. He noted that ‘they dress weirdly and embarrassingly’. The female younger population mostly dress half nude; they prefer to wear trousers and skimpy shirts or tee-shirts that reveal their tummy, body hug which shows all the contours in their body frames or mini-skirts with see through tops while the boys wear shirt and trousers always in various bigger sizes compared to their normal sizes. The author further expressed worry over the source of the unpleasant sense of fashion among the students and concluded that they emulate the dress of ‘television programme presenters and actors/actresses’ costumes projected on the screen which are mostly contrary to our traditional norms and values”.  (p. 43).

Preference for foreign versus indigenous television contents among Nigerian Youth

Studies have established a significant relationship between the levels of attention paid by young Nigerian viewers to foreign contents with the perceived decline of indigenous cultural values among them (Busair, 2017, Onabajo & M'Bayo, 2008, Orewere, 1998). Arguably, Onabajo and M'Bayo (2008) citing Orewere (1998) bemoaned the lack of relevant research on how films and movies can be tailored to address issues impeding development at individual and societal levels. By inference, failure to base television content on researched needs of the audience will yield little or no value to the moral development of the society. Never the less, the authors revealed that, rather than western and Indian movies to exude positive influence on the Nigerian audience in terms of culture; they basically elicit cultural synchronisation.

A lot of arguments have evolved about 'cultural imperialism' and 'cultural synchronisation'. Cultural synchronisation means the acceptance of an external culture by another culture with the external superseding in an evolutionary fashion (Uche, 1996). This meant that these movies were, in their own way, a form of neo-colonization. This is evidenced in the 1980s when foreign movies began to change the taste and lifestyles of Nigerian audiences who imitated the Western mode of dressing, hairstyles, manner of speaking and general conducts.  Many youths watch more foreign movies than local home videos, thus heightening their dissatisfaction and distastes for the Nigerian movie industry, in content and packaging. However, the digitisation of Arewa24 television, though of local content, is expected be rated beyond the products of local film and movie industries. Hence, the need to explore how well Arewa24 reincarnate or depart from the above narratives.

In a longitudinal quasi-experimental study on the effect of a new Hausa language television station on attitudes about tolerance, violence and women empowerment in northern Nigeria, Bowers (2017) compared the responses of respondents who reported watching Arewa24 in 2015 with those of other respondents who reported not to have watched the show in the same year on one hand; and other respondents who were interviewed in 2013, before the channel was launched. The findings indicated that the viewers of Arewa24, in the matched sets, were more tolerant than non-viewers, but the 2015 viewers were much more tolerant than 2013 non-viewers.

Similarly, another study was conducted by Apuke and Dogari in 2017 in Taraba State. The main objective of the study was to investigate the influence of Television programmes on youth dressing pattern in Taraba State University. The study applied the Magic Bullet Theory for analysis. The study revealed, among other things, that entertainment/musical programmes are the most preferred and watched programmes by youths. The study also revealed that youths imitate the hip hop/hippies and makeup/hairstyles shown on television programmes. 

Research Method

This study adopted survey using the cross-sectional approach. The instrument of data collection, questionnaire, covered physical characteristics of the audience, attitudes, beliefs, and the opinion that help to explain the Morality and Learning Attitudes, participation and practice that occurred or are occurring in the population. The population of this study were youths who were members of the 179 registered Youth Associations in Zamfara State, totaling 3,515 based on available record from Zamfara State Ministry of Youths and Skills Acquisition.  Out of this, 21 registered groups, from which 341 members were selected as representative sample for this study through a multi-staged sampling procedure.

The first stage involved a purposive sampling procedure based on the criteria of members’ ease of reach (through available contacts); membership spread (among the 3 senatorial zones; Zamfara Central, West and North zones) and organisation (in terms of structure and activities). The 179 registered Youth Associations with the Zamfara State Ministry of Youth and Skills Acquisition were screened for these qualities out of which 21 Associations were found fit for inclusion. For instance, associations like; Zamfara State Leadership Initiative for Good Governance and Zamfara Democratic Awareness Campaign Organisation, though registered, lacked records of contact address of members and membership spread, hence, excluded from the study.

The second stage of sampling involved a selection of ten associations through systematic random sampling from the 21 qualified youth associations. The procedure for the selection was by the use of sampling frame by which the 21 associations were assigned with numbers, starting from 01 to 21 on the table. Then associations that corresponded with even numbers in the table of were selected for inclusion in the study. Consequently, 10 associations with a total of 2,859 members emerged as detailed in Table 1.

Table 1: Selected Youth Associations with their population of members

S/N      Youth’ Associations                                                                                                  Populations

1. Youth Movement for Society Development and Awareness 50       
2. Zamfara Central Youth Awareness Forum 30
3. Zamfara Youth Alliance 350
4. Zamfara Circle Community Initiative 121
5. Youth Movement for Masses Association 35
6. Township Special Model Primary School 123
7. Child Protection Committee Sankalawa 40
8. SabuwarKaura South Development 75
9. Youth Development Council 2000
10. UmmahatulMu’mineen Women Orphan Support Association 15

TOTAL                                                                                                                              2,859

At the third stage, samples of respondents were proportionately drawn from the population of 2,859 members of the 10 selected youth associations using the Krejcie and Morgan sample size determination table. Details of this is presented in Table 2. 

Table 2: Selection of respondents based on population of members in selected associations

Questionnaire distribution, retrieval and reliability testing

The questions and items on the questionnaire were developed in Hausa language for ease of understanding by the target respondents (Wilson, 2005) and administered to the members of the selected youth associations at their registered offices and venues of their meetings in the proportion indicated in Table 2. Out of the 341 copies administered, 320 copies, representing 93.8% were retrieved. However, only 86.8% (n = 296) of the administered copies of questionnaire were duly filled by the respondents and therefore validated for analysis in this study (Hair et.al., 2010).

A reliability test of the usable copies of the questionnaire revealed a Cronbach Alpha value of .800, indicating that the instrument is highly reliable (Abdulbaqi & Mustapha, 2017)

Data Analysis

The data obtained in this study were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23. The researchers ran descriptive, linear regression and correlation analyses. The unit of analysis was one youth. Results are presented in tables according to predetermined objectives.

Cultural and Moral Content in Arewa24 Programmes

The respondents were asked to rank the moral contents Arewa24 programmes on respect for elders, dress code, abstinence from drug abuse, abstinence from prostitution, abstinence from violence and love for peace. Their responses are presented in Table 3.

Table 3: Perceptions of Zamfara Youth of the Moral Content of Arewa24 Programmes

Level of viewership of programmes produced in Hausa Language among members of selected youth organisations in Zamfara State

Towards attaining the goal of determining the level of viewership of Arewa24 programmes among the youth of Zamfara State, North-West Nigeria, items were generated to assess their viewership of the channel, the platform on which they watch the station, their preferred programme and reason for their preference. Their responses are presented in Tables 4.

Table 4: Level of viewership, platform of viewership and preferred programme

Table 4 reveals that 87.8% of the respondents (n=260) watch Arewa24. 38.5% of them (n=114) watch the channel on Arewa on demand while 35.5% of them (n=105) watch it on Startimes.

On their programme preference, 39.5% of them (n=117) prefer to watch Dadin Kowa, 29.4% (n=87) prefer to watch Labarina, 18.9% (n=56) prefer to watch Kawana Casa’in while 12.2% (n=26) prefer to watch Gidan Badamasi.

Cultural and moral gratifications derived from watching Arewa24 programmes

A cross tabulation of the respondents’ various reasons for watching Arewa24 revealed the following as presented in Table 5:

Table 5: Gratifications derived from watching Arewa24 programmes by youths in Zamfara                          State

Test of hypothesis

The two hypotheses tested in this study are that:

H₁: there is no significant relationship between viewership of Arewa24 programmes and good character formation.

H₂: viewers’ preference for Arewa24 programmes does not influence cultivation of  good values.

The decision rules adopted in this study are as follows. For H₁ and H₂, the study rejects the null hypothesis if the P-value is < (less than) 0.01, but if the p-value is > (greater than) 0.01, this study does not reject the alternate hypothesis.

The study hypothesised that, there is no significant relationship between viewership of Arewa4 programmes and good character formation among the youth in Zamfara State. Pearson moment correlation of viewership of Arewa24 programmes and character formation were found to be very high positive and statistically significant (r = .769, P = 000). Hence, H°₁ was rejected. This shows that an increase in viewership rate of Arewa24 programmes would lead to a very high change in character formation, reduce moral decadence and improve values of learning among youth in Zamfara State.

Analysis by linear regression examined to test the proposition that viewers’ preference for Arewa24 programmes does not influence cultivation of values. Hence, the impact of the predictor variable (x = preference for Arewa24 programmes) on the criterion variable (y = cultivation of values) by Zamfara State youth was investigated as reported in Table 6.

Table 6: Impact of viewership of Arewa24 television programmes on character formation

1. Dependent Variable: cultivation of value
2. Predictors: (Constant), Preference for Arewa24 Programmes

The regression model indicate that the predictor variable, preference for Arewa24 programmes has a high, positive and statistically significant impact on the criterion variable, cultivation of values with the former accounting for 59% variation in the latter (R^{2 .}590, F-value (1,294) = 424.968, t = 4.051, p = .000).

Discussion of Findings

The research revealed the following findings on the four research questions:

1. The study found out that the respondents ranked respect for elders as the highest moral content of Arewa24 This was followed by abstinence from violence, abstinence from drug abuse, then peaceful coexistence with others. This revelation on respect for elders confirms Arewa24 as complying with one of the cardinal role of television, whether digital or terrestrial, as an avenue for transmitting cultures. The content on abstinence from various vices negates the assertion of Apuke (2016), Onabajo and M’bayo (2008) that the audio-visual media; television, films and movies cause cultural synchronisation and loss of national values. The variance in this finding could be attributed to the fact that, the programmes under review were produced in indigenous Hausa language which the viewers were able to relate with and visualise themselves in the characters in the programmes. 
2. The study found that most of the respondents watched Arewa24 programmes on different media platforms with majority of choice on Arewa24-On-Demand platform, corroborating the main thrust of the uses and gratification theory which considers the viewers of the media as playing active roles in choosing and using the media that would best serve their needs (Katz, Blumer & Gurevitch 1974).
3. Findings equally revealed that viewers of Arewa24 programmes, especially Dadin kowa, derive immense pleasure from the programme. This ranges from: the programme mirroring the viewers, instilling moral values and providing the basis for better understanding of life. This finding is in tandem with the main thesis of the cultivation theory that viewership television simulated reality (Gabner, Gross, Morgan and Singrolli,1999)
4. This study found that viewership of Arewa24 programmes made viewers to cultivate sense of tolerance, learn the virtues of peaceful coexistence in their communities, learn how to accommodate people of other tribes and religion and learn how to respect other people’s ways of life. Just as both correlation and regression analysis pontificate high, positive and statistically significant relationship between viewership of Arewa24 programmes and character formation on one hand, and a significant impact of preference of Arewa24 programme on cultivation of good moral values by its viewers. The finding has corroborated the view of Apuke and Dogari(2017), observed that, ever since television came into existence, it has remained the most influential medium among the mass media and can be considered a credible source of information. These moral issues and value have made the Arewa24 programmes to influence the morality of the youth through their repeated viewership of programmes presented in indigenous Hausa language. This makes it easy for the viewers to relate with, and assimilate the content of developmental messages as envisaged by Wilson, (2005). Krijnen (2011) argued that, even though there are ample voices arguing for the importance of television for building a moral civil society, television is often still assumed to have a negative influence on its audience's morality.

Conclusion

The study has investigated the influence of Arewa24 progrmmmes on morality among youth in Zamfara State. Like all literary works, the Programmes examined, mirror the reality of the environment. The goals of the programmes were to restore the values of the Hausa traditions that are becoming lost to modernisation. Implications and lessons have emerged from the findings of this study. Accordingly, the study has validated the postulation of the Uses and Gratification as well as Cultivation theories applied with practical evidences. The study also has clearly revealed how Viewership of Arewa24 programmes do influence the character formation among the youth of Zamfara State. Likewise, the investigation revealed how Preference of Arewa24 programmes influenced the Values of Youth in Zamfara State. In addition, it has revealed how Selected Arewa24 progrmmes made Youth have various perceptions. For instance, most of the Youth preferred Dadin Kowa (Hausa Drama) among the Arewa24 programmes because it depicts their ways of life of the viewers.  This study has, therefore, revealed that viewership of Arewa24 programmes has an influence on the moral conduct of youth in Zamfara State.

Recommendations

Arising from the findings in this study, the researchers advanced the following recommendations:

1. The governments and its agencies should redouble efforts to preserve the morality of indigenous languages for effective communication and promotion of peace and tranquility among the divergent components of Nigeria.
2. programmes that educate, promote good moral values and speak directly to the consciousness of the audience should be promoted to help reduce the incessant incidents of banditry, insurgencies, etc.
3. The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and the National Film and Video Censorship Board (NFVCB) should intensify efforts to entrench and enforcing portrayal of moral values in the contents of television and movies circulating among viewers across the virtual and terrestrial space of Nigeria, most especially those with implication for moral decadence among members of the impressionable age of the society.
4. Future researchers should analyse the content of some Arewa24 programmes to empirically establish the values they pass to the viewers.