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Ethnography of Production Practices in Kenyan Television Entertainment Programmes: Imagining Audiences Submitted By: George Ngugi King’ara Student Number: 208502318 Final Clean Copy Submitted in fulfillment of the total requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in Centre for Communication, Media and Society, University of KwaZulu- Natal, Durban Supervisor: Prof Ruth Teer-Tomaselli 2 Table of Contents Declaration…………………………………………………………………………… 5 Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………... 6 Abbreviations………………………………………………………………………… 7 Abstract………………………………………………………………………………. 9 Preface………………………………………………………………………………... 11 Organisation of the thesis ………………………………………………………………………… 12 Chapter One: A Political Economic Overview of the Beginnings of Broadcasting in Kenya Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………… 17 Kenya’s economic background in context……….…………………………………………….. 18 Statutory protections and regulation of broadcasting in Kenya………………………….….. 20 Political economic legacies and formation of broadcasting systems…………………………. 22 Radio and the beginnings of broadcasting in Kenya………………………………………….. 24 Influence of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on radio in Africa…………………... 26 Introduction of television in Kenya…………………………………………………………….. 27 Television and the nation-building project in post-independent Kenya…………………….. 29 Factors influencing VOK/KBC television programming and audience reach………………. 31 i) Television’s marginal reach………………………………………………………… 33 ii) The economic and political performance of the country…………………………. 35 Television in the era of liberalised media………………………………………………………. 37 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………. 40 Chapter Two: Research Design: Direction and Methods Introduction: background to the study………………………………………………. 42 Reasons for choosing the topic………………………………………………………………….. 44 Issues investigated and the questions tackled in the study……………………………………. 45 Broader issues investigated in the study……………………………………………………….. 46 Overview of narratives of Reflections and Uhondo, the focus programmes of this study…... 46 Participatory research and issues of self-reflexivity…………………………………………… 48 Methodology, the ethnographic approach……………………………………………………… 51 Entry into the field, an empirical experience…………………………………………………... 52 Audience interventions……………………………………………………………..................… 55 Criteria for selecting research-participant audiences…………………………………………. 56 Data collection methods…………………………………………………………………………. 58 Data collection instruments……………………………………………………………………… 59 Data collection and storage……………………………………………………………………… 61 Validation of data and methods triangulation………………………………………………….. 61 Limitations in the research approach…………………………………………………………… 63 Chapter Three: The Dynamic Nature of ‘Being the Audience’ Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………… 66 What is the nature of the ‘audience’?……………………………………………………………… 67 Early models of reception research…………………………………………………………….. 68 3 The ‘active audience’ research paradigm……………………………………………………… 69 Empirical research, audience ethnography……………………………………………………. 70 Active audiences constrained…………………………………………………………………… 71 Television production and the positioning of active ‘reader’ audiences…………………..... 73 Rein in the audience…………………………………………………………………………….. 77 The audience-as-market and audience-as-public disparity………………………………….. 79 Contrasting ‘audience-as-market’ and ‘audience-as-public’ in Kenyan television. ………. 84 Conclusion: what to say about the audience then…………………………………………….. 90 Chapter Four: Role of Entertainment Television Programmes in the Real Lives of Viewers Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………… 93 In theory, what is entertainment in television?………………………………………………... 94 Use of television entertainment for gratification………………………………………………. 96 Use of television entertainment in repairing mood……………………………………………. 99 Attending to the habit of viewing television entertainment…………………………………… 100 Television entertainment, teleology in myth-making……………………………………….… 104 Soap opera, institutional myth or emancipative fora for the audience? ……………………... 108 What’s in the soap?………………………………………………………………………………. 110 The soap opera as entertainment-education, administrating audience response……………. 112 Soaps as folk and functional narratives…………………………………………………………. 116 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………. 117 Chapter Five: Moments of Audience Production in Television Programming, a Theoretical Perspective Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………. 119 Reception theory on the practices of television production……………………………………. 120 Encoding/Decoding television programmes’ content: derivation of the audience………….. 123 Television’s hermeneutic circle…..……………………………………………………………… 129 Political economy of the production of television programmes and audiences……………….. 132 Foucault’s subject and power notions and cultures of television production and viewing…… 136 Chapter Six: Audience Concepts: Who Watches Television Entertainment Programmes? Introduction…................................................................................................................................… 140 The process of profiling the audience revisited…………………………………………………... 141 Who is a producer?........................................................................................................................... 143 Conventional tendencies in conceptualising the audience……………………………………….. 147 Television stations’ top management bosses as audience………………………………………… 149 Uncommon tendencies in conceptualising audiences…………………………………………….. 153 Producers as the audience………………………………………………………………………….. 153 Television as a social force and society as audience?...................................................................... 156 Audience in social categories………………………………………………………………………. 159 Audience as the traditional family unit…………………………………………………………… 163 Audience as the youth……………………………………………………………………………… 167 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………...... 171 Chapter Seven: The Audience’s View of Itself Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………… 174 When the audience owns the programme………………………………………………………… 175 When the audience and producers concur……………………………………………………….. 182 4 ‘Emotional’ reality links producers, audience, actors and fictional characters……………….. 189 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………….. 191 Chapter Eight: Conclusions: Summary of Thesis and Closing Remarks Introduction: aims and objectives of the study revisited………………………………………… 193 Summary of key findings…………………………………………………………………………… 193 Political economy of programmes production and producers’ audience concepts...................... 194 Cultural-moral fabric and identity of ‘audience as society’........................................................… 197 Cultural identity, subjectivity of television producers and audiences.......................................…. 198 Final remarks on the study’s contribution to knowledge................................................................ 200 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………… 202 End Notes……………………………………………………………………………… 219 5 Declaration I, George Ngugi King‘ara, do hereby declare that this is my work, and that all other work has been fully acknowledged. I further declare that I have never submitted this work for the award of a degree to any university. Signature………………………………………… Date:………………… George Ngugi King‘ara 6 Acknowledgements Many thanks go to all my colleagues at Centre for Communication, Media and Society (CCMS) for their contribution to the completion of this research. Particularly, I would like to thank Senior Professor Keyan Tomaselli, Professor Ruth Teer-Tomaselli and Professor Richard Collins (The Open University, United Kingdom) for their guidance during the completion of this research. Special thanks go to Prof. Teer-Tomaselli for enrolling me in CCMS to complete this project even though it commenced at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Other persons who significantly contributed to the completion of this research include Mary Onyango, acting Programmes Manager at Channel 1 KBC Television in February 2005; Catherine Wamuyu, Producer-Director of Reflections and Elizabeth Kamwiri, Producer-Director of Vioja Mahakamani. To them I say, Thank You. I would also like to express my utmost gratitude to Stephano Ngunyi, Stan Darius and Muriithi Wamai for allowing me to work freely in their Eagles Media Agents Ltd as a Production Assistant-Researcher. I am also grateful to the many people from the casts and crews of Uhondo and Reflections who were very forthcoming with their time and patience for my questions. Although it would be difficult to mention everyone, a few of them require mentioning for sitting with me in long conversations and interviews about the role of television in society and audience issues. Wafula Nyongesa, Christopher Singila, Derrick Amunga, Monica Abok, Charity Mwala, Naomi Kamau and Zuhura Asman require my utmost gratitude for their special contributions in this respect. Finally, I would like to thank Senior Professor Mark Hobart, SOAS, University of London for having been the first person to guide me in finding initial footing toward what this study would become. The first year of a PhD candidate is a most difficult one, but conversations with Professor Hobart helped me believe in the productive outcome of a study into Kenyan television producers and their audiences. 7 Abbreviations Alternating Current (AC) Big Brother Africa (BBA) British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)