Cross-Cultural Reception Analysis of Selected Commercials on Ethiopian Television (ETV) Amharic Program
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2008-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The role of advertising in market economy is to inform as well as educate consumers
about products and services. To achieve these goals, advertisers employ a variety of
cultural values in their appeals.
Today one of the most contested issues in advertising strategies is the role of culture. The
main focus of this study is the role of culture in media messages and the reception of
them. How Ethiopian audiences draw on local or western cultural resources or a
combination of the two, in their meeting with different media texts will be central.
A qualitative research method is often considered the most appropriate in audience
reception studies, and this was also the case here in this study. The study follows a three
stage qualitative approach; which include qualitative content analysis, focus group
interviews and in-depth interviews with individual viewers.
For this study, a two stage sampling technique was used for selecting commercials to be
content analyzed. The first stage comprised the selection of specific time intervals when
ads are broadcasted; two different segments of prime time (prime time I and II) were
selected. In the second stage, twenty commercials for food and drinks that were running
during the six months’ research period were randomly selected. Regarding the audience
sampling, a purposive sampling technique was followed. Audiences categorized to be
among the target audiences were purposively selected.
The qualitative content analysis of the selected commercials revealed that western values
are predominantly recurring themes, rather than more local or traditional themes. A
central reason was given by the advertising agencies, which argued that western values
were much more powerful and had a more homogenizing effect than the local values.
With regard to the audience, it appeared that audiences, regardless of their level of
education, are active and powerful in the meaning making process and reshape the
content of media messages. The study also explored how external factors like social
context, age, marital status, and personal contact are present in the processes of meaning
making of ads which reflect either western or traditional Ethiopian values.
Description
Keywords
Cross-Cultural Reception