Abstract:
The appearance of women in print media is symbiotic to creating attention, interest
and desire to purchasing product, services or ideas that they sell on the advertising
copy. In this media semiotic study, we seek to explore the overall connotative
messages and examine what these advertisements represent women as in
advertisements by establishing how various codes haven been combined to create a
certain meanings associated with women. These associations can therefore the
basis of gender stereotyping even in countries that are considered progressive in
nature.
The goal of the study is to explore the impact of messages in print media
advertisements on the attitude towards women and their role in society. The
objective of the study is to investigate what kinds of codes are used in the Kenyan
print media magazine industry and how the codes contribute to the stereotypical
impressions created by the media
This was a qualitative study that focuses on media semiotics hence an interpretative
research process is undertaken. The sample size for this research were 20 print
media advertisements with women as the main subjects or symbols used in the
message. It involved the evaluation, interpretation and construction of the qualitative
aspects of communication experiences. Data collection tools that were used in this
study included responding to brief self-administrated questionnaire, observation schedules and focus group discussions.
Key findings indicated that advertisements were a representation of real life social norms that governed the gender roles for women in society. Key conclusions exhibited that in spite of the belief that women abide by social norms, the reality is that they are also just as defiant in following the rule defined as social norms of the society. Key recommendations that emerged indicated societal norms be should be adhered to in all forms of adverts as they are bound to create certain divisions in meaning, hence lose the recognition of society as well.
