UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI THE YOUTH’S PERCEPTION OF KENYAN TELEVISION WOMEN NEWS ANCHORS: THE CASE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI LETTY ANYANGO K’OKUL K50/74146/2014 A RESEARCH PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF MASTERSOF ARTS INCOMMUNICATION STUDIES, SCHOOL OF JOURNALISMAND MASS COMMUNICATION NOVEMBER, 2016 DECLARATION Candidate’s Declaration This project is my original work and has not been presented for a degree in any other university. Signed:………………………. Date:………………………… Letty A. K’Okul K50/74146/2014 Supervisor’s Declaration Thisproject has been submitted for examination with my approval as the University supervisor. Signed:……………………………….Date:……………………………… Dr.JosephNyanoti Lecturer, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Nairobi. ii DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this research project to my late Father Dr. R. K’Okul, my motherDr. F. K’Okul who has endlessly encouraged me and tirelessly checked how far I am with this project.Dr. J. Katu, thank you for being my study partner. I would also like to dedicate this project to my dear friend, Salome, for pushing me towards not giving up and lastly Erica; thank you for your patience through this whole project. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish to acknowledge all those who contributed to the success of this project. Special thanks to my supervisor for his guidance and support during the entire period of the study. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION .................................................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ...................................................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ..................................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................................ ix ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................................... x CHAPTER ONE ................................................................................................................................................... 11 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................ 11 1.0. Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 11 1.1. Background of the Study ......................................................................................................................... 11 1.1.1. Overview of the Television News Industry in Kenya ..................................................................... 14 1.1.2. Youth Preferences in Media Content .............................................................................................. 15 1.2. Statement of the Research Problem ......................................................................................................... 16 1.3. Objectives of the Study ........................................................................................................................... 17 1.3.1 Specific Objectives .................................................................................................................................. 17 1.4 Research Questions ......................................................................................................................................... 18 1.5 Scope of the Study ................................................................................................................................... 18 1.6 Significance of the Study ......................................................................................................................... 18 1.7 OPERATIONAL TERMS .............................................................................................................................. 20 CHAPTER TWO .................................................................................................................................................. 21 LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................................................................................... 21 2 Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 21 2.1 Historical Background ............................................................................................................................. 21 2.2 Contemporary Television News Broadcasts and Emerging Trends ........................................................ 23 2.3 Television News Viewership ................................................................................................................... 28 2.3.1 Anchors’ Sex Appeal, Physical Appearance, Gender and Age ....................................................... 29 2.3.2 Sex-Appeals Used In Television News Broadcasting ..................................................................... 31 2.3.3 Eye Tracking Data Representation and Visualization in Television News ..................................... 32 v 2.3.4 Discrimination in the Television News Industry ............................................................................ 32 2.3.5 Youth Perception of Sexualized Television News Anchors ........................................................... 34 2.4 Objectification Theory ............................................................................................................................. 35 2.5 The Gaze theory ...................................................................................................................................... 36 2.6 Shock Advertising or “Shockvertising” ................................................................................................... 38 2.7 Viewers’ Perception of Television News Anchors and Sexual Appeals ................................................. 38 2.8 Sex-Appeal and Marketers ...................................................................................................................... 40 2.9 Moral Discussion around objectifying Women ....................................................................................... 41 2.10 Summary of Literature and Knowledge Gap ........................................................................................... 41 CHAPTER THREE .............................................................................................................................................. 43 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................................... 43 3.0 Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 43 3.1 Research Design ...................................................................................................................................... 43 3.15 Study Area,Target Population and Sampling Technique ......................................................................... 44 3.3 Data Analysis .................................................................................................................................................. 45 2.11 Reliability and Validity ........................................................................................................................... 46 2.12 Ethical Considerations ............................................................................................................................. 47 CHAPTER FOUR ................................................................................................................................................ 49 ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION .................................................................................................................. 49 4.1 Overview ........................................................................................................................................................ 49 4.2 Most viewed Television News Station ........................................................................................................... 49 4.3 Factors for viewership .................................................................................................................................... 50 4.4 Anchors’ Physical Attractiveness, Age and Gender ....................................................................................... 51 4.5 Female vs. Male Anchors ............................................................................................................................... 53 4.6 Targeted gender viewership ............................................................................................................................ 54 4.7 Youth Viewers’ Perception of a Sexualized Female News Anchors .............................................................. 54 4.10 Anchors appearance during presentation ................................................................................................. 56