Abstract
The present study sought to examine how linguistic devices and discursive strategies used in Kenya’s Citizen TV ads which pattern men and women differently according to gender well-being. This thereby results in unconscious rationalisations of social constructions. Using observation as the main tool of data collection, a corpus of fourteen adverts sourced from one mainstream media station, Citizen TV were purposively sampled, observed by the researcher, transcribed into data, coded, then thematically analysed using techniques of content analysis. Guided by Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis theory which provided the framework for analysis, the study adopted a qualitative, case study research design. The research design provided in-depth information about the phenomenon in order to establish the discursive and linguistic strategies used in the TV ads and how they mirror society’s system of values, attitudes and beliefs about men and women. The findings of this study indicated that gender ideologies that affect how meaning is made out of Kenyan TV ads were embedded in linguistic structures, social processes and manoeuvres.
Highlights
Kenyan TVs use language in a unique way to air various content ranging from adverts, news, documentaries, movies, music and other programs
Findings of this study revealed that advertisers used various linguistic and discursive manoeuvres to construct ideologies in ads
Adopting Van Dijk’s (2008) model, analysis concentrated upon the following linguistic markers and discourse practices that vary as a function of social organisation and are used by the advertising industry to reify society’s actions and beliefs
Summary
Kenyan TVs use language in a unique way to air various content ranging from adverts, news, documentaries, movies, music and other programs. Influenced by the work of Postman (1985) that TV is a curriculum, a specially constructed information system that uses language to influence, teach, train and cultivate the mind and character of the youth, inherent is that people learn behaviour by observing others’ behaviour as seen in adverts which mirror social values and shape them. Curran (2002) defines advertising as ‘‘a paid, mediated form of nonpersonal (selected group of persons e.g. the youth and children) communication presented through the various media and designed to persuade/convince an audience to do something or to take some action about products, services or ideas. Adverts use linguistic elements and discursive strategies to inform, persuade, influence and perhaps change opinions, emotions and attitudes (Cook, 2001). Ads transmit cultural ideas about gender, influence how people think about their own genders and contribute to the ongoing social stratification of genders in society. Manca and Manca (1994) further argue that ‘advertising is a bellwether of our cultural trends, a mirror of social values and a powerful usually malevolent force that shapes those values’
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