Presented as a comparative analysis, this qualitative audience study tests the
hypothetic proposition that youths’ (1) consumption of media is mediated by
various socio-economic determinants as well as cultural and institutional
practices. In order to test this hypothesis, the research examines the media (more
specifically, television) consumption practices and lifestyles of black South
African youths living in an urban city (Durban) and a peri-urban town (Alice) at
a particular moment in time. Positioned as a historical study that reflects a specific period in the history of
television (and media) in South Africa, the study attempts to provide a snapshot
of youths, television consumption and lifestyles in post-apartheid South Africa.
It assesses the relationship between youths and media during a specific period,
namely, around a decade after South Africa’s first democratically elected
government and when the country was still in the throes of political and
economic change and transition. It assesses this relationship over a four-year
period (from 2002 to 2006) and reflects on this epoch in relation to the then
existing policy and regulatory framework as well as to the findings from other
relevant empirical research. The analysis reflects upon the social constructs of class and gender in relation to
the study’s broader findings on television consumption, which are derived from
qualitative and quantitative empirical data. It develops categories and typologies
of the lifestyles of youths towards this end and it concludes that youths’ media
consumption practices and the production and reproduction of lifestyles is a
complex matrix of ‘lived’ experiences, cultural identity and other socialising
factors such as age, race and class. Moreover, it shows that peoples’ media
choices and the related selection and appropriation of media are fundamentally
informed by specific policy and regulatory regime. Notwithstanding this, the
ways in which black South African youths use media (imported programming
or local television content, for example) and accordingly fashion their lifestyles,
remains largely determined by their class, their access to Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the proximity of the experiences
represented in the media to those with which they can identify. (1) I refer to youths (in the plural) in recognition of the heterogeneity of young people classically referred to as the amorphous group, youth. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/7117 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Smith, Rene Alicia. |
| Contributors | Teer-Tomaselli, Ruth Elizabeth. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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