The influence of media on behaviour among secondary school students in Kitui central sub-county, Kitui county

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of media on behaviour among secondary school students in Kitui Central sub-County, Kitui County, Kenya. The study sought to determine the extent to which the availability of social media influences behaviour among secondary school students, whether television was a contributing factor that influence behaviour among secondary school students, to determine how cellphones influence behaviour among secondary school students and finding out how video influences behaviour among secondary school students. The study used descriptive survey research design to collect data. The target population was teachers and students of Kitui Central Sub-County. Stratified random sampling was used to ensure all the sub-groups in the population are well represented and questionnaires were used to help in data collection which was analyzed using tables and statistical methods. The study revealed that media availability influences behavior among secondary school students. It also confirmed that lack of parental involvement was a contributing factor that made media influence students‟ behavior. Further, the study also found out that media use had both positive and negative impacts on students‟ behavior. The study concluded that with the current trend in technology, students are posed with a challenge associated with risks and benefits of media use hence there was need of parental involvement in their children‟s media use .The study recommends that educational institutions should incorporate media related topics in guiding and counseling, government, non-governmental organizations and ministry of education should support programs on media use, parents should be in the forefront in monitoring media access and reinforcing positive messages among their children, teachers should closely monitor media use by students and students should be selfdisciplined in accessing media content. The researcher suggested further studies on measures schools can take to curb deviant behaviors associated with media among secondary school students, whether lack of parental involvement is a contributing factor that makes media influence behaviour among students and any other social factor that can impact on the behaviour of students in secondary school students.