Television’s Persuasive Advertising Strategies and Sports Gambling among University Students in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

The growth of gambling industry in Kenya has raised a great concern among various stake holders in the country. Gambling is addictive and if not monitored can lead to serious health implications. An increase in betting activities in Kenya therefore, pose a threat to the young and future generation. Cases of mental health that have led to suicide among the youths have often been reported This study therefore, sought to evaluate the influence of television’s persuasive advertising strategies on sports gambling among the university students in Nairobi County, Kenya. The study was guided by the following objectives; to establish the influence of celebrity endorsement on sports gambling among university students in Nairobi County, to determine the influence of testimonial advertisement on sports gambling among university students in Nairobi County, to establish the influence of bandwagon strategy on sports gambling among university students in Nairobi County, to investigate the influence of message appeals on sports gambling among university students in Nairobi County, to establish the influence of argument strategy on sports gambling among the university students in Nairobi County and to establish the moderating influence of media literacy on sports gambling among university students in Nairobi County. The study was guided by three theories namely; the theory of planned behaviour, attribution theory and elaboration likelihood model. The study employed cross sectional survey. In this case, convergent parallel mixed methods design was employed to evaluate the effects of television’s persuasive advertising strategies on sports gambling among university students in Nairobi County. The study population comprised of university students pursuing undergraduate programme from all the four public universities in Nairobi County, namely Technical University of Kenya, Multimedia University of Kenya, Cooperative University of Kenya and University of Nairobi. A sample of 400 students were picked from a population of 58,584 students. Purposive and snowball sampling were used in the study to select the sample. Questionnaire was used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data as it had both open and closed ended questions. Consequently, in-depth interview was also conducted to collect qualitative data. The quantitative data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics while qualitative data was analysed using content analysis. The following diagnostic tests were conducted; normality test, outlier test, collinearity diagnostics, correlation analysis, multicollinearity, autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity/homoscedasticity tests. The relationship between variables was determined using regression analysing. From the analysis, the study found out that celebrity endorsement, testimonial advertising, bandwagon strategy, message appeals and argument strategy had a positive influence on sports gambling among university students. Consequently, media literacy as a moderator contributed to increase in betting activities among university students. In overall, the study arrived at a conclusion that television’s advertising persuasive strategies significantly influenced sports gambling among the university students in Nairobi County. The study thus recommends that proper legislation should be put in place to govern betting activities among university students. In addition, proper sensitisation programs should be made available in the universities to prevent the students from addictive sports betting.