the influence of television advertisements on junk food consumption among school teenagers in eldoret town

Abstract

Junk food consumption with its undesirable effects on the health of the youth is prevalent among the young in Kenya. There are many factors that influence youth into junk food consumption. Television is one of them. This study seeks to examine the influence of television advertisements on junk food consumption among the youth. It analyzes the strategies employed in presenting junk food advertisements such as language use, the frequency with which the advertisements are presented and the resultant attitude created that affects their food choices. The study is grounded on Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory of Mass Communication propounded in 1986 and extended in 2001. The theory provides a framework within which to examine what influences people to act the way they do, for instance, what influences the decisions they make and also explains the mechanisms that communication employs to positively influence the attitude of consumers towards their products. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain data from the teenagers. This study was based on five public day secondary schools within Eldoret town. The five secondary schools were arrived at through simple random sampling and were adopted as a representative sample. The target population for this study was young people aged between 13-17 years. Simple random sampling was used to arrive at a target population size of 155. The researcher analyzed junk food advertisements using content analysis. The data was analyzed and interpreted using both descriptive and inferential statistics. This study found out that television influences teenagers into junk food consumption through frequent airing of the adverts, the use of persuasive language, pleasant images of the food and celebrities. It is recommended that parents, guardians and all institutions concerned with health matters should educate the youth on the negative effects of junk food consumption to enable them make informed decisions. The Film Classification Board should compel programmers to place disclaimers on junk food adverts. The findings of this study will enrich the information available on junk food consumption patterns, more particularly from the point of view of how linguistic features inherent in junk food adverts easily influences teenagers into junk food consumption.