Abstract-This study examines the influence of Television programmes on youth dressing pattern in Taraba State University, Jalingo. The researcher employed Taro Yame's formula to select 100 students which formed the sample frame. The study made use of focus group and quantitative survey for its methodology. 8 participants formed the focus group while 100 selected students were distributed questionnaires. All the questionnaires distributed were duly filled and retrieved by the researcher. Data gathered for the quantitative survey were coded in SPSS version 22 and presented in tables with frequency counts and simple percentages while the focus group was textually analyzed. 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 than any other form of dressing and imitating such dressing makes them appear indecent. The study recommends that Universities and other tertiary institutions should take the issue of dress code serious, punishing students who are found wanting. Local Television presenters should dress decently at all times and no matter their kind of programmes they should know that they are role models and whatever they do is easily copied by the young ones.

Keywords: influence, dressing pattern, taraba state university, television programmes, dress code.

Background to the Study ver since Television came into existence, it has remained the most influential medium among the mass media. It can be considered a credible source of information. The reasons 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 presentation and shows thereby entertaining, educating, and informing them. "The influence of Television on teenagers, adolescents and youths are widespread. The influence is mainly on their dressing and their attires, that is, what they wear and what they use to adorn themselves" (Saodah & Mohd, nd.) Therefore, the propagation of television and its attendant's consequence on social behaviour of youths has called for a great concern in recent times. The value of television as a medium of mass communication is esteemed all over the world. Television portray message that have influence on the viewers, mostly, their mode of dressing. Television holds a very special place in the culture of a people. "Television, like books are culturally special medium?an important medium of cultural transmission (Baran, 2009:75). Studies show that television contributes to the socialization and the transmission of culture (Baran, 2009;Daramola, 2007).

Therefore, television is a powerful instrument that can build or destroy people's culture due to its conversational nature. It also plays a role in the daily lives of men and women in the way they perceive and conceived themselves and in the way they conduct their own lives (Aldana, 2004:1).

A lot of researches, most especially in developed countries suggest that visual media (e.g Television) influence a range of attitudes and behaviors among youths. Scholars such as Huesmann and Taylor (2003) are of the view that television has authority over young people's decision. They assert that "youths just accept what the television tells them without question". In contribution, Baran (2009) opines that "television technology is but a double age sword that has the power of doing good and evil to anybody exposed to it". Keyes (2000:1) raised fears about the negative influence that the media have on youth culture. "Youths are particularly vulnerable to outside influence from their television sets because their values and ideals have not yet fully developed". Thus they are prone to alteration by any slightest means. Chari (2005) says "their world is erected by the stories they hear, see and tell. Television plays significant role in this process, hence the importance of who should determine what should shape people's perception and how".

Television in terms of fashion has influenced the youths, thereby making them believe in a particular way of dressing. The kind of clothes used in acting, stage music, advertisement are presented to the society as the best dressing to make one look good. Mangwere etal (2013) supports this, stating that "television are some of the factors that today affects the way teenagers (youths) dress, talk, walk and even influence the type of music or food they want.

Besides being influenced by the characters on television, youths are also prone to be influence by the presenters of the programme (Boone, & Lomore, 2001). By implication, youths absorb this movie contents without restraint or second thought. Elaborating on the negative effect of television. Omede (2011) in Apuke (2016) asserts that:

In recent times, it has been observed that a change is occurring in the mode of dressing and clothing style of the younger population. They dress weirdly and embarrassingly. The female younger population mostly dresses half nude; they prefer to wear trousers and skimpy shirts or tee-shirts that reveals their tummy, body hug which shows all the contours in their body frames or mini-skirt with a see -through tops while the boys although still wear shirt and trousers but which are always in various bigger sizes compared to their nominal sizes Apuke (2016) further submits that "the way students on campuses of learning dress leave many to wonder where they get these dresses from. They tend to copy different television programme presenters and actors/actresses costumes projected on the screen which are mostly contrary to our traditional norms and values".

The aim of the study is to investigate the influence Television exerts on youth dressing pattern with special reference to Taraba State University. The goals of the study are to:

(i) To explore dressing pattern contained in television programmes. (ii) To determine how exposure to television programmes influence the dressing pattern of youths. (iii) To determine how to dissuade youth from indecent dressing projected on television programmes.

The study is guided by the following research question:

(i) What are the dressing patterns contained in some television programmes? (ii) To what extent has the exposure to television influence the dressing pattern of youths? (iii) How can youth be dissuaded toward indecent dressing projected on television programmes? c) Explicating applied terms

For the sake of clarity, the following terms are defined as used in the work.

One of the ways that youths are able to get exposure to the current trends in fashion pertaining to their dressing is through the mass media. Television is a powerful tool that exerts power on the psychology of youths, due to its audio and visual strength. Television has specific programmes on fashions and beauty. Youths are bound to fancy such new up-to-date and trendy fashion and dressings. Hoffner and Buchanan (2005) found that "attractiveness of the TV character associated with the rating of female character with their wishful identification could lead to modeling effect in term of the appearance of the women". Therefore, youths are more likely to consciously model their own appearance after the model character. This leads to making TV character appealing as role models to young adults, especially women. This in turn gives an emphasis on the unique connection between audience and the media figures.

TV has a wide influence on its audience (Mohd Yusof, 2006). It affects, not only, the knowledge of the audience but also the attitudes such as the desire for products and brand preferences. Many studies have shown that TV, to some extent, is very influential on youth clothes shopping behaviour especially for the adolescents and the young adult group (Peters, 1989). However, Owuamalam, (2007) found that "adolescents did not seem to select clothes like those worn by persons in TV". In a similar vein, Lachance, Beaudoin & Robitaille (2003) did not find any TV influence; instead, people are more likely to believe in what they see. TV is the most credible source of information and is widely used (Ibelema and Powell (2001). Ibelema and Powell (2001) further found that "cable TV news is the most trustworthy of all news services among Alabama residents". TV is able to provide knowledge on fashion and women dressing to its audience. TV is highly visual and seeing something on TV, like fashion, may have an impact on the audience. When local TV programme aired fashion close to home fashion design, there is more likely that the news proximate it and it is found to be realistic to them (Weitzer and Kubrin, 2004). Audience members tend to make changes in their appearance, values, attitudes, and other characteristics to become more like the admired celebrities ( Lomore, 2001). Earlier Murray (1999) found that "teenage girls frequently tempted to emulate the lead character in the programme that they watched by dressing like her". In Television, more than any other medium, advertisements and entertainment contents flow together to create an experience. They reinforce social codes as to attract readers stay glue, convincing them the right way to look, act and think. According to Dominick (2005), in Apuke (2016) throughout history, television has been collectors, producers and distributors of social knowledge. He emphasized this notion by explaining that the three defining features of magazines are that first, they attract the most specialized group of audience, and second, magazines are the most in tune with demographic, economic and social trends. Television, being the media that attract the most specialized audience can have a powerful impact on its niche audiences.

TV has many impacts on its audience. One of the ways is brand consciousness especially among adolescents who are exposed to a variety of programmes.

The programmes range from sports to news and to reality shows. Research has shown that consumers, in general, and adolescents, in particular, who are conscious look to and appreciate the media and celebrities for information related to latest fashions trends and brands (Nelson & McLeod, 2005). They also found that commercial media consumption (television) was positively related to brand consciousness. Brands are creeping into media content and product placements are common in the movies and TV shows. The media may be the initial stage of getting the knowledge to the types of dressing fashion. However, Nelson & McLeod (2005) argue that as the pressure and the media hype to wear brand name clothes, low brandconscious adolescents may feel they are alone in their beliefs. Therefore, they, too, are persuaded to follow the trends.

In most cases, there are positive relationships between audience programme preferences and the influence of such programmes. This means that the higher the level of likeliness in watching a programme in TV would very much associate with the level of influence in the audience everyday life. Dominick (2005) found that it is not the amount of TV exposure that influence girls and young women's images of their future; rather it is the programmes that they were exposed to.

Researchers have found that audience selects different channels to meet their information need. Buijzen & Valkenburg (2000) found t hat girls of higher age groups wants clothing's as gifts with a strong function and products that facilitate social ties and giving an impression of the self (jewelry). The agenda set by the media associate with their children's agenda.

TV programmes are carefully cast in such a way that the physical appearance and the manner of dress do develop character to the audience. This is because physical appearance was found to be related to wishful identification of especially girls. For youths, appearance is of primary importance in life (Ramsey & Langlois (2002).

Brown & Pardun (2004) found that youths most especially girls would watch top ten girls' programmes. As such, they tend to be influenced by the programmes. Apuke (2016) found out that youths develop interest on dresses they see on Television most especially western films, and hip hop/hippies and make up/hairstyle are the most imitated form of dressing by youths.

On a similar study, Saodah, W. & Mohd S. (nd) carried out a study on the impact of television (TV) and magazine on fashion and dressing of Malaysian women of various ages is called for. The objectives of the study are to find out (1) the level of TV and magazine use among Malaysian urban women of various age groups, (2) the level of TV and magazine influence on urban Malaysian women of various age groups, (3) the extent of TV and magazine influence on urban Malaysian women's fashion and dressing, and (4) the relationship between urban Malaysian women's fashion and dressing and the use and influence of TV and magazine of various age groups various age groups.

The study was conducted among 639 urban Malaysian women using a survey design. Data were collected using questionnaires and the data were analyzed using SPSS WIN 12. Both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were employed in the study. Results revealed TV influence has an impact on urban Malaysian women's fashion and dressing. Magazine use is associated with young adult's fashion and dressing while magazine influence is associated with adolescent's fashion and dressing.

Okeoma (2012) Carried out a similar study, on the influence of Home Movies on the Dressing Patterns of Students of Tertiary Institutions in Abia state, notes that home movies mediate in the culture of students of tertiary institutions in Abia state especially as it relates to their dressing patterns. Research has shown that, Movies, like books, are important medium of cultural transmission and socialization. Thus, the concern on media Influence has led to the development of different communication theories in an attempt to explain the relationship between communication messages and their Influence on the respondent. The thrust of this work was therefore, to examine the Influence that home movies have on the dressing patterns of students of tertiary institutions in Abia state. The survey research method was adopted, with a sample size of 400. The questionnaire was the research instrument for the collection of data. Findings showed that home movies celebrate African values in their dress patterns. This is in contrast with the obvious practice in Western and foreign movies where the contemporary trend is in the swap of roles between the male and the female gender as manifested in the swap of dress culture. This shows that home movies have Influence on the pattern of dressing of students of tertiary institutions in Abia State. Having reviewed the necessary literatures related to the study, it could be said that Television exerts influences on those who glue themselves to it most especially youths. a) Theoretical Framework Theoretical studies are principles on which the subject of the study is based. These theories determine their objective parameters. These theories establish a vantage point, a perspective, a set of issues for which the study seeks for answers to the study questions. The relevant media effect theory to this study is the magic bullet theory.

The Magic Bullet Theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by 'shooting' or 'injecting' them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response (Baran, 2003). Baran (2003) adds that, both images used to express this theory (a bullet and a needle) suggest a powerful and direct flow of information from the sender to the receiver.

The bullet theory graphically suggests that the message is a bullet, fired from the "media gun" into the viewer's "head". With similarly emotive imagery the hypodermic needle model suggests that media messages are injected straight into a passive audience which is immediately influenced by the message. Baran, and Davis (2003) further postulates that "the theory is with the assumption that media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the receiver or audience is powerless to resist the impact of the message".

There is no escape from the effect of the message in these models. The population is seen as a sitting duck. People are seen as passive and are seen as having a lot media material "shots" at them. People end up thinking what they are told because there is no other source of information.

The Magic bullet theory is appropriate to this paper because the study looks at how packaged television programmes affects the dressing pattern of youths. Just like a bullet the messages from television influence a very large group of young people directly and uniformly by 'shooting' or 'injecting' them with messages designed to trigger a desired response and this responses is seen in their emulation of such styles/fashions shown in television.

Television programmes presenter, actors and actresses styles/fashion is liken to a bullet, fired from the "media gun which is the "television" into the viewer's "head" which represents the youths who absorb such messages. The messages are injected straight into the youths, and this immediately influences them; making them copy and practice what they watch. By implication, this theory holds that as young people watch television programmes they come across certain dress pattern that they admire, they quickly adopt it without having any second thought. This means television is so powerful that it can influence people directly without the need of other factors.

The research design used in this study is survey method. The population of this study is the entire undergraduate students of Taraba State University, Jalingo who are about 5000 (www.tsuj.edu.ng). To determine the sample size of the population, the Taro Yamene's formula was applied thus: Therefore the sample size of this work is 100 undergraduate students from the four faculties in Taraba State University, namely: Arts and Social Sciences, Education, Agric and Sciences respectively. The researcher randomly distributed the questionnaires to the 100 students. This was done in order to give anyone under the sampled population equal opportunity to be chosen. The researcher used questionnaire and focus group discussion in gathering data for this study. The researcher administered the sets of questionnaire to the respondents face-to-face and gave them some time to respond to the required questions. Data gathered was coded and analyzed with SPSS version 22 and was presented in tables, with special references to simple percentages and frequencies. On the other hand, the researcher carried out a focus group discussion with 8 participants from the various faculties mentioned above.

The focus group participants were made up of 8 members from the various faculties/departments in the institution. The researcher selected them base on their He determined that by making prior investigation before the study. The 100 questionnaires distributed to the respondents were dully filled and retrieved, giving a high response rate of 100%. Based on the data gathered and analyzed, 10 respondents making 10% are within the ages of 17 and 19, 35 making 35% are within the ages of 20-22, 40 making 40% are within the ages of 23-25 while 15 making 15% are within the ages of 26-28. This implies that most of the respondents were within the ages of 23-25. Gender of respondents' shows that 65 of the respondents making 65% were female while 35 making 35% were male. This implies that majority of the respondents were female. The table above shows that the entire respondents, 100 (100%) watch television.

The Focus group discussion also pointed out to the fact that students watch Television. The entire focus group members agreed that they watch Television. Table 2 above examined the level of respondents' exposure to television programmes. Findings reveal that majority of the respondents 75 making 75% watch television very often, 15 making 15% watch television often, 5 making 5% do not watch television very often while 5 respondents making 5% do not watch television often.

The focus group discussion results show that the entire members of the focus group often watch Television. As Silas pointed out "If I don't have lectures, I glue myself to Television, I love watching Television very often that sometimes I even forget to eat and do other basic things in life". In further response, Jenifer another member of the focus group said "There are two things that I love doing, watching and chatting. If I am not one channel to another looking for channels on fashion and design." Table 3 ascertained whether the respondents have watched a mode of dressing on television that interests them. 81 respondents making 81% agreed that they had ever developed interest on dress mode seen on the television, while 19 respondent making 19% said they had never developed interest on dress mode through television.

These findings are supported by the collective view of the focus group participants. They all agreed that they have watched modes and different styles of dressing on Television that interest them. Elaborating on this Kauna a mass communication 200 level student asserts that: "I glue myself to the TV not for news but to watch current fashions displayed through the various attires worn by actors/actresses as well as Television presenters." Richard another member of the focus group also commented on the effects modes of dressing on TV exerts on him, He said "I don't go to the boutique just like that; I have to watch a recent fashion/clothing from my best presenters in TV. The more I watch TV the more I love to change my dressing pattern." Field Survey 2016 Table 4 ascertained the television programmes that affect youths the most. Findings reveal that majority of the respondents 75 making 75% agreed that entertainment/musical programmes affects dressing style of youths the most, 5 making 5% agreed that news programmes affects dre ssing style of youths the most, 15 making 15% agreed that drama programmes affects dressing style of youths the most, while 5 making 5% agreed that discussion programmes affects the dressing style of youths the most. Table 5 above ascertained the categories of dressing youths imitate the most from Television programmes. The finding reveals that the hip pop/hippies and hairstyles/make-ups are the most imitated dress pattern by youths. 15 making 15 % agreed that only corporate/cocktail are the most imitated dress pattern on television programmes by youths, 11 making 11% agreed that hip pop/hippies are the most imitated dress pattern on television programmes by youths, 5 making 5% of the respondents agreed that the hairstyles/make-ups are the most imitated dress pattern on television programmes by youths while 60 of the respondents making 60% consented that the hip pop/hippies and hairstyles/make-up are the most imitated dress pattern by youths. Table 6 above seeks to find out from the respondents their reasons for preferred dress style. Majority of them consented that they imitate dress pattern on television programmes due to the trend in fashion, while 5 making 5% do so due to comfort and convenience, 10 respondents making 10 % do so for ideological reasons whereas 20 making 20% do so because they are imitating a role model. This means that, youths emulate dress pattern on television programmes due to trend in fashion as well as imitation of a role model/presenter

The focus group discussion tackled the issue of students not differentiating casual wear from the ones meant for outing. The group collectively agreed that most youths today cannot differentiate between casual home wears and those meant for outings due to their overexposure to fashion/entertainment programmes on TV. The group members were further asked on the effect of adopting some entertainment/musical presenters dress styles on youth dressing pattern. 75% of the group members agreed that adopting some entertainment/musical presenters dress pattern by students on campus makes them to look indecent. c) How can youth be dissuaded toward indecent dressing?

The following are suggestions given by the members of the focus group discussion. As far as these crops of respondents are concerned, setting and enforcing strict dressing code in Tertiary Institutions especially, Taraba State University will go a long way in curbing indecent dressing. According to James one of the focus group member who is a student of Physics "If only all the Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria set strict rules on indecent dressing, watching and imitating indecent dressing on TV will greatly be reduced." In contribution, Angela a student of Political science opines that "charity begins at home and that proper parenting and counseling will dissuade youths from dressing nude even before they get to the tertiary institutions. The entire group also believed that uncompromising religious teachings; through regular sermons or preaching as well as counseling will go a long way in tackling the influence of TV on dressing pattern of youths. Blessing a Biological sciences student says "Pastors and Imams should insist on the need for decent dressing."

Another suggestion given by the focus group is that campus brigade should be formed to sensitize the students from being influence from what they watch. In contribution Dorathy one of the focus group members suggests that the campus brigade is to stand against indecent dressing by promoting good moral values among students, making judicious use of the mass media programmes that promote moral values and the sanctity of sex could also be employed in dissuading youths from copying whatever they see on screen.

Findings of the study revealed that all the respondents watch television and that they do so very often.

Findings further revealed that entertainment/musical programmes are the most preferred and watched programmes by the respondents. Which means youths are mostly attracted to entertainment and musical programmes. It is believed that such programmes encapsulates different presenters on different dressing styles and patterns that is why majority of the respondents consented to have watch a dressing pattern that interest them on television programmes.

Exploring the television programmes that affects youths the most the study revealed that entertainment and musical programmes affect youths preference of clothing thereby making them imitate/emulate different presenters/actors way of dressing.

Examining the extent to which the exposure to television programmes influence the dressing pattern of Taraba state University students, the study revealed that most of the respondents strongly agreed that youths dressing are mostly influenced by television programmes. This implies that the more youths exposes themselves to different television programmes the more they would likely dress like the presenters on screen. This is related to Mohd Yusof (2006) findings that postulate that TV has a wide influence on its audience. It affects, not only, the knowledge of the audience but also the attitudes such as the desire for products and brand preferences. In contribution, Peters, (1989) asserts that "many studies have shown that TV, to some extent, is very influential on youth clothes shopping behaviour especially for the adolescents and the young adult group" The study revealed that youths imitate the Hip hop/hippies and makeup/hairstyles projected on television programmes than any other form of dressing and the major reasons for that are for fashion and imitating a role model. These findings are related to Hoffner and Buchanan (2005) findings which state that "attractiveness of TV character associated with the rating of female character with their wishful identification could lead to modeling effect in term of the appearance of the women. Therefore, youths are more likely to consciously model their own appearance after the model character. This leads to making TV character appealing as role models to young adults, especially women. This in turn gives an emphasis on the unique connection between audience and the media figures". As youths watch these stations it is discovered that the dressing patterns they see interest most of them but most of the youth do not necessary purchase or make such dresses for themselves.

Also it was revealed that most youths today cannot differentiate between cloths meant for outing and casual wear and this has made them to look indecent. That is imitation of the informal dress pattern projected on different television programmes has made most youths look indecent.

It has also been revealed that youths can be dissuaded from indecent dressing through setting and enforcing strict dressing code in tertiary institutions especially Taraba state University, and proper parenting and counseling, uncompromising religious teachings; through regular sermons or preaching as well as counseling, Pastors and Imams should insist on the need for decent dressing.

V.

Several researches on television and films influence on youth, revealed unequivocal evidence that television has influence on youth behavior in both immediate and long-term contexts than any mass media channel. This study focuses on the media use patterns of male and female University students and changes in attitudes toward dressing as attributed to media (Television). It draws upon a study of youths in Taraba State University, Jalingo that included both quantitative and qualitative components.

Findings confirm that television do influence young people's behaviors. The evidence is clearest within the most extensively researched domain that television exposure within youths increases the likelihood of physically and verbally aggressive behavior, aggressive thoughts, and aggressive dress patterns which may not go well with our norms and culture.

Both qualitative and survey findings highlighted the role of Television on young people's behavior, a large proportion of both young men and women believed that the media had influenced changes in their behavior related to dress pattern. Thus a significant proportion of young people reported that recent changes in their dressing style were prompted by the media (television). Therefore, the study recommends that:

(i) Universities and other tertiary institutions should take the issue of dress code serious, punishing students who are found wanting. (ii) Local Television presenters should dress decently at all times and no matter their kind of programmes they should know that they are role models and whatever they do is easily copied by the young ones. (iii) NGOs dealing with issues like dress pattern need to sensitize youths about issues of dress pattern. (iv) Advertisers need to be censored and stopped from using immoral or indecent images or visuals in their effort to sell their goods or services.