Media and the Creation of Self-Identity: An assessment of how the Kenyan youth construct their Self-Identities through consumption of television advertisements

Abstract

This is a study of television advertisements as media texts and the Kenyan youth Consumers of these advertisements from a cultural studies perspective. The study Investigates the relationships between the meanings encoded by the advertising industry And the meanings the youth decode from these advertisements to construct their self identities. The study has three main objectives: (a) to deconstruct the Ideological/mythical meanings embedded in Kenya television advertisements; (b) to Investigate how the Kenyan youth perceive themselves; how they define their self identities; And (c) to analyses how youth consumers decode meanings from what is Encoded into television advertisements for their self-identity formation. Available literature's suggest that television advertisements create meanings that resonate With the target audiences. The advertisements project the lifestyles and tastes of the Targeted demographics and psychographics of the audiences in order to create a Familiarity towards the goods and services advertised. Empirical literatures show that Consumption of television advertisements is much more than messages sent from the Media houses to the audiences with predictive response, in the linear communication Model. Audiences who consume television advertisements, on the contrary, engage these Texts, where they are either convinced or they reject the messages of the advertisements. They can also negotiate, taking in part of the message and rejecting the rest of it. This is The main concern of this study, where the research sets out to investigate what meanings Are circulated by the advertising industry and how the Kenyan youth engage these Meanings to construct their self-identities. The study is conceptualized in the premise that When the youth interact with media content, like television advertisements, they deploy Their self-identities, already constructed from traditional socializing agents like family And schooling. After this interaction they are able to redefine their self-identities, which Are often reinforced by media interaction. The study, therefore, employs a combination of semiotic analysis and focus group Discussions to gather data on the ideological or hidden meanings in the advertisements And the views of consumers of these advertisements. To ensure credibility of these Qualitative data the researcher employs triangulation, where the researcher gathers Quantitative data through a survey and key informant interview data from a creator of Television advertisements.From the findings it is concluded that the Kenyan television advertisements are encoded With meanings that resonate with the Kenyan youth, reflecting their tastes and lifestyles. However, it is also concluded that the Kenyan television advertisements are replete with Ideological or hidden meanings that reflect the gender, racial and class power imbalances That are characteristic of the patriarchal capitalist society. Another conclusion is that the Youth in Kenya, as television advertisement audiences, are unpredictable and therefore Hard to classify demographically and psychographically. This makes them appreciate Those advertising messages that resonate with their tastes and reject those that are Dissonant with their ways of thinking. The thesis of this study, therefore, is that the Kenyan youth know their way around television advertisements and are able to use them For their social, effective and cognitive needs. From these conclusions the researcher Makes three main recommendations: (a) there should be large-scale research to Investigate the impact the various ideologies embedded in television advertisements have On the Kenyan youth; (b) television advertisements make many claims, some of which Are at variance to national cohesion and social change. Large-scale investigations should Be conducted to interrogate these claims; and (c) cultural studies in general, and semiotics In particular, should be mainstreamed in the department of sociology and social work of The university of Nairobi in order to strengthen the study of mass communication from a Sociological perspective.