An Examination of Advertising and its Impact on the Media in Zambia

Abstract

This thesis examined advertising and its impact on the media in Zambia.It looked at the historic development of advertising agencies describing their structure and organisation.It explored the trends of advertising formats of both the print and broadcast media. The study focused on the effects of advertising on editorial content. It looked at how media institutions operate and handle economic pressures from the pursuit of advertising revenue. It also scrutinised how media audiences and consumers are affected by advertising.The sample for the study was selected from among the towns to reflect the whole country. Three cities were selected. The data was collected from ten media institutions and advertising agencies from the sampled cities. Data collection was conducted using three sets of questionnaires: one for quantitative data and two for qualitative data (in-depth interviews).Findings of this study indicate that advertising in Zambia has been gradually developing over the years, with and increase in the number of agencies. It has demonstrated how advertising agencies were run, structured and organised both in the past and in the present days.Substantial evidence seems to indicate that the mass media are heavily dependent on advertising revenue to survive. Especially for the private media, the competition for advertising continues. Advertising has profound influence on the editorial autonomy of most media institutions. One fundamental revelation from the study and significant to the proposition of the political-economic theory of advertising pertains to the ability of big and financially powerful corporate organisations to dominate the media industry, influence media operations and consequently frustrate press freedom.