PREFERENCE OF REALITY SHOWS TO NEWS STORIES ON TELEVISION AMONG YOUTHS IN PORT HARCOURT, RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The study examined the preference of reality shows to news stories among youths in Port Harcourt. The work was hinged on the Uses and Gratifications theory and Individual differences theory. Three objectives and three research questions were adopted. Survey design was used and sample size of 400 respondents drawn from the population size using the Taro Yamane formula. The questionnaire was used to elicit data from a population size of 488,642 being the number of youths in Port Harcourt. The instrument was administered on 40 respondents from 10 communities in Port Harcourt. Simple percentages were used to analyse data.  Findings show that the extent to which many youths prefer reality shows to news stories is great and the inability to spend more time watching the news on television placed the preference of reality shows to news on television higher. The study recommends that television outfits should include more entertainment stories in their news as a way of making the youths tune in especially if they missed any episode of their favourite reality show.