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 advertisements on social media. The study seeks to: first, examine the dimensionality and discursive construction of hybridity and its ideological connotations of selected Ghanaian-produced advertisements; second, to interrogate audiences’ reception and perspectives on such hybrid content and the latter’s ideological constraints; and third, investigate factors that influence the construction and reception of the hybridized content. The study is hinged on the concept of hybridity as a post-colonial theory and the concept of ideology. The study is anchored on qualitative content analysis using social media ads collected from 10 companies selected from the top local and Global Marketing companies in Ghana (Ghana Club 100 ranking, 2022). In-depth interviews were conducted with some officials from the sampled companies and 10 selected postgraduate students of the University of Education, Winneba to find out the audience reception and perspectives on the advertisements. Data analysis revealed that all the social media advertisements consciously encoded hybrid materials in their content; second, that audiences lacked the sophisticated awareness of acknowledging the hybrid content embedded in the ads and third, it also showed a subtle ideological incorporation of the marks of post-colonialism. The study concludes that the regular utilization of hybrid content in Ghanaian advertisements has achieved permanence in media production and brand advertisements, more importantly; its acceptance by the local people has turned such social media products into an ideological imposition on audiences.
Presenters
Abena Abokoma AsemanyiSenior Lecturer, School of Communication and Media Studies, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Communications and Linguistic Studies
KEYWORDS
COMMUNICATION, SOCIAL MEDIA, ADVERTISEMENTS, CULTURAL HYBRIDITY
