An Investigation into the Reception of English Premier League Games by Ethiopian Youth in Addis Ababa
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2009-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
In the midst of the broadcasting of football games particularly the English Premier
League games in Ethiopia recently youth have been exposed to different kinds of foreign
produced media products. It is obvious that Ethiopia, as part of the world-wide trend of
influence brought about by globalization, is subject to a situation marked by the increased
flow into the country and consumption by the local audience of foreign- produced media
products. While at this time English Premier League games take lead in terms of
consumption rates of foreign media products. This study, in particular, under the title of
‘’An Investigation into the Reception of English Premier League Games by Ethiopian
Youth in Addis Ababa’’ is interested in investigating the web of meanings that arise from
the viewing of English Premier League among Ethiopian youth. With this end in view,
the study employed observation, focus group interviews, and individual in-depth
interviews to gather the data needed to make sense of the youth’s viewing experience.
The findings of the study show that youth in their interaction with media contents
transmitted in settings far from theirs, actively interpret them in light of the subjective
values, aspirations and concerns within their lives. What the youth’s own responses
reveal is that the plurality of meanings they make when viewing English Premier League
games represent a challenge to the premises of the media imperialism thesis, which put
forward the homoginizating role of the Developed countries media in terms of
propagating developed countries values and interests at the expense of the developing
countries like Ethiopia. The concept of homogenization fails to accurately describe the
consumption of foreign media messages by local audiences. The research also shows that
the coming into the picture of such regional media as produced by nations like Great
Britain raises the question whether media imperialism thesis is adequate in terms of
explaining the overwhelmingly complicated global exchange
Description
Keywords
English Premier League Games