“Do you see what I see?” – The critical reception of television advertising among Western Australian homemakers

Abstract

This thesis investigates the relationship between Western Australian (WA) homemakers, media literacy and television advertising. Employing both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies; it focuses on how their educational background, especially with regards to media education, predisposes their understanding and critical reception of television advertising. WA homemakers were chosen as the subjects of this research because they represent a group of people who potentially make purchasing decisions for the household as well as for three different groups of consumers; female adults, male adults and children. Thirty-five participants took part in this study, recruited by snowball sampling. The findings are indicative that they have developed their own media education, supported in part from their media education in school and their life experiences, and are ‘media literate’ by these standards. They use this education in their relationships with television advertising. On the whole, the findings indicated that the WA homemaker is quite different to and more media literate than the popular stereotype of traditional housewives and modern homemakers would suggest.