| Abstract: | In today's world, advertising, using media as its vehicle, is a pervasive and
powerful force in shaping people’s attitude and behavior. These days, the
common complaint about Ethiopian Television is its gradual decline in the
quality of its programs. Therefore, the main focus of this study was on the
ethics of Ethiopia Television advertisement and audience reaction towards
its programs. In doing so, the study has tried to identify the existing
advertisement ethical practice of Ethiopia Broadcasting Corporate television
programs and advertisements considered ethical by the society. The study
employed descriptive design involving both quantitative and qualitative
approaches. The target population of the study was EBC television viewers
found in Addis Ababa. Due to difficult nature to determine sample size of the
EBC viewers, the student researcher used non probability sampling
particularly convenience sampling technique. Quantitative data were
collected from viewers of EBC through close ended questions and qualitative
data were collected through interview with marketing manager and
employees of the department within the corporation. In the study, the data
which were gathered through document review were presented in the forms
of description and the responses of the audience were presented in the form
of the tables and charts which include frequencies and percentages. The data
were obtained through questionnaire, and they were analysed using
descriptive statistics SPSS software. The data gathered through open ended
questionnaire and interview were analysed qualitatively. Accordingly, the
research answered four basic research questions. The findings of the study
revealed that EBC advertisements transmitted on ETV misled viewers,
provided false information about the products or service that were to be
render, and created confusion over product distinctions, disappointed
viewers with exaggerated claims, encouraged the use of harmful products
such as alcohol, and advertisements of contraceptive products were
offensive/irritating. Based on these indications, the study concluded that
there were problems of ethics on EBC advertisements. Finally, it
recommended that great attention should be given for improving the
advertisement practices of EBC. |
