Abstract

Many homes in this new media environment bear enormous task of maintaining a media rich home that bring opportunities for younger ones and weaning the young ones from excessive mediatisation of their lives.  In response, media scholars have developed Parental Mediation Strategies as possible and effective response to the situation. However, empirical studies that focus on the level of adoption of these strategies can hardly be encountered in communication and media literature in Nigeria. This study, therefore, resorts to a representative sample of   369 respondents drawn from the population of Ilorin metropolis, being the state capital of Kwara State. Conceived as a descriptive, exploratory study, the present interest of the study is to measure level of awareness and frequency of adoption of the various parental mediation strategies among parents in Ilorin metropolis. The parental mediation theory -restrictive, co-viewing and instructive- serves as the theoretical framework. The result indicates high level of awareness of the parental mediation strategies. There is also the adoption of various parental mediation strategies that tend to suggest that parents prefer restricting, too much, the freedom of the child to choose. These outcomes inform the conclusion and recommendation contained in this study.

Key Words: Parental Mediation, Mediation Practices, Exploratory Studies, Younger Ones, Television Viewership, Ilorin Metropolis

Authors’ Bio

*   Oba Abdulkadir La’aro,  Ph.D., is a lecturer and current Postgraduate Programme Coordinator in the Department of Mass Communication, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria. He obtained his B.Sc. and M,Sc. degrees in mass communication from the University of Lagos in 1998 and 2003 respectively and his Ph.D. from the University Utara, Malaysia. His research interest is in media literacy competence, new media, broadcasting and development communication

**  Oluwatosin Shalom Faseyi is a postgraduate student in the Department of Mass Communication, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria. She holds a B.Sc. in Mass Communication from the Benue State University, Makurdi.  Her research interest is in broadcasting, new media and the family media culture.

^JCMR Journal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 11, No. 2, October 2019, pp. 213 - 225