Faculty of Economic Sciences, Communication and IT Madeleine Magnusson Lisa Skogström “We’re not living in America, but we’re not sorry!” A study of television consumption and relative deprivation among Kenyan students in an urban and a rural area Media and Communication C-level thesis Date/Term: 20-01-10 Supervisor: Stefan Jerkeby Examiner: Christer Clerwall Serial Number: X-XX XX XX Karlstads universitet 651 88 Karlstad Tfn 054-700 10 00 Fax 054-700 14 60
[email protected] www.kau.se Abstract The United States of America is one of the most powerful countries in the world and their broadcasting system has become a role model to the rest of the world. Since the US charge less for their media products in third world countries, it is cheaper even for poor countries to import American content than to purchase local products. The aim with our survey is to explore whether heavy consumers of American television programs in Kenya hold positive attitudes to the American lifestyle and experience feelings of relative deprivation as a result of this consumption. Comparisons are made between students in an urban and a rural area. The theoretical framework for this study includes cultivation theory which investigates the effects of the values and behaviors of the television audience. It also includes relative deprivation, which is based on the assumption that people experience deprivation when they compare themselves with others – so called reference groups. In our case the reference group is the American lifestyle. A third theory used for this study is cultural imperialism which says that dominating, mainly western media corporations impose their cultural values on third world countries, as in this case, Kenya.