Role of Media in Creation of Role Models among the Youth

Scholarly Research Paper from the year 2012 in the subject Communications - Mass Media, printed single-sided, grade: none, - (Kenya Institute of Mass Communication (KIMC)), language: English, comment: Media is a powerful enigmatic force that a society cannot fight or wish away. This paper therefore seeks to guide us to keenly analyze the media and understand its mechanism in influencing our youth's thoughts about themselves in behavior and personality. No one would want to see the media as a Trojan Horse hiding societal ills and instabilities. It is in knowing what is "media" that we embrace the Digital era without fear of uncertainties. , abstract: This research is an investigation on media influence among the youth when it comes to choosing role models. The study is critical because in this liberalized electronic media era, it is important to understand from the youth what they watch, read or tweet and what they gain from their choice of media channels. The study employed the survey method to collect quantitative and qualitative data on the uses of media channels among the youth and the gratification they achieve when it comes to identifying role models. The study is informed by the uses and gratification theory and how it is related to other media uses theories. The general purpose of the research was to look at the role of media in creation of role models among the youths.The researcher looked at a theoretical framework to contextualize the uses and gratification theory before reviewing various literature on this subject to put the present study in perspective. The literature revolved around previous researches on audience studies with particular reference to the relationship between the youth and the media. In the methodology, the researcher used self-administered questionnaire with open-ended and closed-ended questions to youths in campus in Nairobi.A focus group discussion was concluded in one of the sampled campus in order to validate the data collected through self-administered questionnaires. Three key informant interviews were also conducted with program producers from three leading Television stations in Nairobi.The data was analyzed and the research findings indicated that most young people get or identify with their role models through different media channels also get entertainment and learn a lot from the media. The researcher concluded that the media fulfills the youth s affective and cognitive needs.