Commodification in mass media’s educative function in Kenya: How now shall we think?

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Stanley

Mass media’s educative function has shaped Kenya’s worldviews since the colonial era, transforming how people see and live through repetitive, unreflecting content. The paper argues that commodification and economic rationalism assumptions are reinforced because media images embed philosophical commitments that are not produced spontaneously by history or culture. With the premise that mass media is never neutral, it critiques commodification’s social consequences and calls for a deliberate, philosophically consistent approach to reflection and response.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

The popularity of mass media in Kenya

Commodification: What is it?

Review scope and method

African Educational Research Journal Vol. 6(3), pp. 137-147, July 2018 DOI: 10. 30918/AERJ.63.18.049 ISSN: 2354-2160 Review Commodification in mass media’s educative function in Kenya: How now shall we think? Benson Kamary 6439 N Rockwell St. Chicago, IL 60645 USA. Accepted 20 July, 2018 | ABSTRACT
Mass media’s educative function has had a considerable influence in Kenya since the colonial period. The impact of mass media in shaping the contemporary worldviews—how people see and live in the world—has led to the transformation in the society. The influence of mass media especially in reinforcing commodification and economic rationalism presuppositions is profound because human beings are fundamentally creatures of habit and mass media contents are characteristically repetitive and unreflecting. Since mass media’s images and messages are embedded on philosophical ideas and principles which do not simply develop under spontaneous historical, social, and cultural influences but are products of a fundamental and directing commitment at the core of human thinking, they should be subjected to an authentic critique. From the premise that there is no neutrality in mass media, this paper examines the idea of commodification and its consequences in the society, and calls for a deliberate, thought-out, philosophically consistent approach for reflecting, critiquing and responding to how mass media educatesits audience.
Keywords: Commodification, mass media, Kenya, economic rationalism, worldview. | | --- | | E-mail: [bkamary@yahoo.com. Tel:](bkamary@yahoo.com. Tel:) +1 773-996-4235. | INTRODUCTION The goal of this paper is to examine the role of the educational function of mass media in shaping audience’s worldviews particularly by disseminating economic rationalism and commodification narratives, and to suggest a thoughtful, philosophically consistent approach to holistically understand how mass media form and shape worldviews. The review applies qualitative historical-philosophical literature study approach to explore and analyze the characteristics ofcommodification, how the media commodifies its contentsand the consequences of commodification in the context of mass media’s educative function in Kenya. The term “mass media” is used in this review to refer to television, newspapers and radio as the dominant means of communication. Traditionally, mass media has been understood as to have three main functions: i) to inform, ii) to educate, iii) and to entertain. The educative function of mass media does not necessarily mean a formal instructive program deliberately presenting teaching and learning contents to the audience. Educative function in this study means any educational processes leading to the formation of perceptions and resulting to behavior change. The popularity of mass media in Kenya When a middle class Kenyan living in a major city like Nairobi wakes up in the morning, he or she usually listens to the news on radio or watches the television and peruses the newspapers before starting the day’s work. To a considerable extent, most of his or her conversations and decisions are based on or are influenced by the information from the media. Indeed, the media sets the agenda for public opinions and shapes peoples’ perspectives because the Kenyan media is largely considered as a genuine institution for information, education and entertainment. According to a research study by Gallup International in March 2009, the media institution was the most trusted Afr Educ Res J 138 with over 80 percent of Kenyans giving it a favorite approval. Tom Wolf, a lead researcher at Gallup International noted that Kenyans are putting their last hope in the media while their trust for other institutions is at an all-time low. The Standard, one of the mainstream newspapers reported that an overwhelming 89 per cent of the 2,007 respondents approved of the press, commonly known as the Fourth Estate (Opiyo, 2009) . A po

FAQs

What does the paper mean by the educative function of mass media?

It refers to educational processes that form perceptions and lead to behavior change, not only formal instructional programming.

How does mass media influence worldviews in Kenya according to the paper?

It shapes public opinions and perspectives by disseminating economic rationalism and commodification narratives, influencing cognition, comprehension, norms, and behavior.

What is commodification in the context of this review?

Commodification reduces social relations to exchange relations and assigns monetary value to items not traditionally treated as commodities, such as ideas, identity, or gender.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Stanley