Minorities and Media Consumption

Doctoral Research Projects

• Between commerce and culture? Attitudes towards advertising among ethnic minority and majority youth in Flanders

Promotor: Leen d'Haenens

Doctorandus: Joyce Koeman

Period: 2005-2010

This Ph.D. research project assesses the relationship between media and minorities with a main focus on the role of ethnic-cultural identity in the perception of advertising and the consumption of ethnic minority and majority adolescents in Flanders. Youngsters with a Turkish or Moroccan background are of main interest, as they belong to the numerically largest ethnic groups in Flemish society. By means of a quantitative survey the socio-demographic features, values, ethnic-cultural position, the media use and consumer behaviour of these adolescents are mapped. Consequently the relationships between these characteristics and their advertising attitudes are further explored through in-depth interviews and focus groups.

• The influence of identification on use and interpretation of television news among Flemish persons of Moroccan and Turkish origin

Promotor: Leen d'Haenens

Doctorandus: Hatim El Sghiar

Duration: 2008-2011

Uses & Gratifications, Grounded Theory, the Limited Capacity Model, Linguïstic Pragmatics and the ethnographic method serve as a theoretical basis for assessing the factors (among others source, content, form and individual characteristics, portrayal, family ties, social capital and identification) that may have an influence on the use of media and television news and the interpretation processes (including among others the media impact, perception, recall and comprehension) that occur with that usage. Functional, normative and emotional identification replace among others ethnicity, culture, religion and identity, because of their intrinsic attention towards dynamics, history, actors and contexts and because of the fact that these concepts create a stronger consistency with other factors in this research. This multi-method study has a quantitative (surveys as reference for media and news use among youth and Moroccan and Turkish adults) and a qualitative part (focus groups of two times three hours at the homes of 12 Moroccan and 12 Turkish families) part, consisting of interviews, observation notes and a field experiment (recall, comprehension and appraisal questions concerning a newscast).