Fourth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

This study fills the void of marginal attention given the considerations of a dual influence of hybridity and ideology in the portrayal of Ghanaian-produced television advertisements. The study: first, examined the dimensionality and discursive construction of hybridity and its ideological connotations of selected Ghanaian-produced television advertisements; and second, interrogated audiences’ reception and perspectives on such hybrid content and the latter’s ideological constraints. The study is hinged on the concept of hybridity as a post-colonial theory that is marked by a sense of double consciousness and ‘in-betweenness’, and the concept of ideology as part of the frame through which hybrid contents are portrayed in the television advertisements. The study is anchored on qualitative content analysis using television ads collected from ten companies selected from the top 100 local and multinational companies in Ghana; and, in-depth interviews conducted with some of officials from the sampled companies as well as twenty selected regular student viewers. Data analysis reveals that all the television advertisements from the sampled companies consciously encoded hybrid materials in their content in varying forms that include a utilization of local and external material and second, that audiences lack the sophisticated awareness of acknowledging the hybrid content embedded in the ads and unconsciously receive, appropriate, and consume the contents of the ads as originating from the local culture. The study concludes that the regular utilization of hybrid content in Ghanaian-television advertisements has achieved permanence in media production and brand advertisements.