A MEDIA SYSTEM DEPENDENCY THEORY PERSPECTIVE ON ICONOGRAPHIC EUROCENTRISM AMONG THE YOUTH IN KENYAN UNIVERSITIES

Recent years have witnessed the youth immerse themselves in the consumption of media for various uses and gratifications. Icons (celebrities) have continued to dominate the pages of magazines and newspapers. This study introduces print media consumption amongst the youth as a predictor of celebrity content in their consumer activities. The youth have unwittingly accommodated and imitated these icons. Considering the growing interest of youth in the magazines and newspaper features, it becomes necessary to examine how these celebrities influence the choices the youth make. The principle questions this article addresses is whether icons’ presence in the media fosters a new dependency, in other words diversifies dependency among the youth. This article is premised on the uses and gratifications theory, the use of dependency and reception theories in understanding the youth’s choices. The article is organized as follows; - firstly, I focus on the uses and gratifications and the dependency theory, which postulates dependency relations between individuals and media based consumerism. Secondly, I explore related literature on iconography. Succeeding sections of the article develop the research method, present the findings and discussion, the conclusion and, lastly, the recommendations. The results show the existence of Eurocentric implications and a negation of Afrocentrism. The study employed a desktop systematic paper review method.