Project Mentor: Bruce Whitehouse, Sociology & Anthropology
2027 Impact Fellows:
Project Description:
From TikTok videos to telenovelas, audiovisual media can have a tremendous impact on viewers' understandings of social norms pertaining to fundamental questions about marriage, childbearing, and sexuality. This project will survey the types of media consumption in which young adults engage in one community in Sierra Leone. What do they watch, how, where, and with whom? Where does the content they watch originate? How do males' viewing patterns differ from those of females? The project will then seek to determine to what extent the content Sierra Leoneans watch affects their decisions regarding romantic relationships, when and whom to marry, and when to start having children. Field research will entail conducting participant observation, individual interviews, and focus group discussions with young adults. Library research will entail studying media consumption and gender norms in other cultural and geographic contexts. Ultimately, this project seeks to translate insights into how media shapes social norms and personal aspirations into culturally grounded strategies to inform policy about media, family formation, and reproductive health.