Media consumption and identity formation: the case of the ‘homeland’ viewers

Abstract

This article examines the television consumption patterns of a group of rural African working-class students on the campus of Rhodes University in Grahams-town, South Africa, in order to examine the relationship between media consumption and identity formation. Drawing on interviews with these students, the article points out that their rejection of foreign television programmes is a recent phenomenon, coinciding with their arrival at Rhodes University. They experience a sense of alienation from the black and white middle-class norms that dominate the cultural space of the university and, as a result, feel the need to reaffirm a traditional African identity. The article argues that it is this need which explains their rejection of foreign television programmes. This is a reminder that media messages themselves are mediated by other modes of cultural expression and, as such, we need to understand the media as mediating, rather than determining, cultural experience.