Urban Youth and Entertainment Television in Kenya: a Survey of Youth in Universities in Nairobi County

Abstract

Majority of entertainment television programmes offered by local stations in the country target the youth. They are conceived by media managers with information from advertising and marketing research findings, executed for the main purpose of generating revenue for the media houses. However, the media houses do not seek to find out what the youth think or even feel about the entertainment programmes being aired on television targeted to them. The overall objective of this study was to explore the views of urban youth on the content of entertainment television programmes for the youth in Kenya today. The study had four specific objectives which were; to investigate the kind of entertainment programmes offered by TV stations in Kenya today, to establish the roles of the TV programmes targeting the youth, to explore the views of the urban youth towards the TV programmes and to establish the impact of the TV entertainment programmes on the youth. The study used both qualitative and quantitative research methods which included; Survey, Key informants and Focus group discussion to collect data. The study was limited to the selected universities located in Nairobi County. The population for this study was all youth between the ages 18-35 years in the five selected universities. The study targeted 120 respondents who were selected using convenient sampling. A total of 24 students were sampled from each university. Questionnaires were prepared and used to collect data which was then analyzed using descriptive statistics. This study was guided by three major theories; uses and gratification, cultivation and hegemony theories. The study found out that the entertainment programmes offered to the youth in Kenya today include; music and dance (Tusker project Fame, Sakata, Coke studio), musical programmes (Mseto East Africa, Straight Up show, The beat) and reality television (Soap Operas, Tujuane and Churchill live).The study also found that the role of these programmes was entertainment, creating information, and creating awareness on fashion and trends. The findings also showed that the youth view these programmes as informative, educative and mostly entertaining. The study concluded that the youth are not involved in the concerving of youth entertainment programmes offered to them on television. The study recommended that the producers should involve the youth ideas when coming up with entertainment programmes to be aired on television.