Television in Family: Kana Television and Everyday Life in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Date
2020-12
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
It is obvious that our everyday life is highly bound up with media, including print, electronic and currently new media. By employing anthropological ethnographic methods and through the lenses of cultural studies and structuration theoretical approaches this research tries to look at the introduction, fitting and embeddedness of Kana television into the everyday lives of families. It is also the aim of the research to look at the relationship between people and the TV while watching Kana. The research is focused in Addis Ababa of some selected sub-cities where frequent viewers are informed to be found. The study specifically is concerned with why Kana TV won the attention of the majority of viewers unlike other TV channels introduced at the same time, how families and family members try to fit Kana with their everyday life, what the role of actors is in turning the TV from a new guest to an everyday activity of watching.
Accordingly, the findings of the research indicate that Kana TV got the attention of the people within short period of time for the reason that it bridged the global, the far culture, with the local through language. In addition, the scheduling of the programs considered the time schedule of the viewers. Moreover, it was found that interpersonal relations in family when it comes to viewing Kana is somehow political and the social relation in the realm of watching goes beyond family bonds. Regarding the relationship between the TV and the viewers, the research revealed that not all the people give the same meaning for what is presented and not all members of families watch the same channels. As a result, preference differences are negotiated in family accordingly. The research also asserted that people use television for different purposes in line with the time and other household activities. Finally, the research implied that the everyday discourses about and regarding Kana are related with globalization effects in which the arguments regarding globalization have a role in building up the „self‟ and „other‟ identity.
In addition, it showed that anthropological studies of media may give a hint on how families in our modern society are living with media and how culture negotiate with other cultures that are displayed on the screen.
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Television in Family: Kana Television and Everyday Life in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia