The role of the media as agents in the consumer socialisation process has received a great deal of attention from researchers, television in particular. Television has been found to indirectly stimulate interaction about consumption with parents (Churchill & Moschis, 1979). While in the long term, television viewing may lead to greater consumer
knowledge, product knowledge and motivation for consumption for adolescents (Mehta & Keng, 1985), in the short term it may not affect the development of consumption-related motivation and behaviours (Moore & Moschis, 1978). Watching television commercials is a strong predictor of attitudes toward advertising (Bush et al., 1999) and seems to give teens the experience to judge the tactics used by advertisers (Mangleburg & Bristol, 1998), but does not appear to contribute to recall of the advertisement (Ward & Wackman, 1971). Other effects of television commercials include motivating the purchase of expensive, well-known brands, seeking excitement from novelties and fashion and shopping as a form of recreation and entertainment (Shim, 1996).
Besides television, the print media also play an important role in consumer socialisation. Newspaper readership provides the strongest predictor of several consumer skills such as consumer knowledge, consumer activism, economic motivation for consumption and the ability to manage finances (Shim, 1996). In Singapore, Mehta and Keng (1985) found that
42 newspapers had a major impact on adolescents’ consumer affairs knowledge6. However, both print media and television commercials could also direct young people towards undesirable consumer decision making, such as impulsive purchases and confusion from too many brands and stores from which to choose (Kamaruddin & Mokhlis, 2003). The undesirable impact of media is also reported in Moore et al. (2002), where it is noted that reliance on advertising is associated with deficits in adolescents’ factual knowledge of the consequences of sexual behaviour, weakening their attitudes towards sexual responsibility and increasing the likelihood that young teens might engage in sexual intercourse. This may be the result of adolescents being inundated with advertising that features sexual imagery. Other media such as radio have received little attention in the consumer
socialisation literature. However, what has been done suggests that radio has no effect on consumers’ affairs knowledge, product knowledge, or motivation for consumption (Mehta & Keng, 1985).
In addition to the traditional media, the internet has become an appealing and powerful communication tool, especially among adolescents. Teens use the internet to carry out research, do homework, find news and current events, for health education, entertainment, leisure, and shopping (Ferle, Edwards, & Lee, 2000). Young people also prefer to use the internet as the source of sensitive information, especially if they want it quickly, easily, and confidentially (Chan & Fang, 2007). Similarly, Paul and Bryant (2005) state that the internet serves as an invaluable resource for sensitive topics such as sexual and mental health, as well as issues relating to interpersonal relationships, which many adolescents
6 Consumer affairs knowledge is defined as “cognitions held with respect to basic terms in economic, insurance, finance, real estate, and marketing knowledge of consumer legislation in the area of unit pricing, bait advertising, code dating, and remedies available to consumers” (Moschis & Churchill, 1978, p. 607). An example of a consumer affairs measure employed by Mehta and Keng (1985) is; “When a person dies, his property is taken over by the government”.
43 may feel uncomfortable discussing with parents, health care providers or even peers. Thus, understanding the internet and its potential impact on consumer socialisation is a matter of contemporary interest (Lee & Conroy, 2005).
Studies show the internet is the most preferred socialisation agent as compared to other agents (Singh et al., 2003), and the effect of the internet on adolescents’ lives and subsequently their consumer behaviour cannot be denied (Kaur & Medury, 2011;
Moscardelli & Liston-Heyes, 2005). The use of social media websites such as Facebook, YouTube, Myspace and Twitter are also popular as sources of health information among adolescents (Varce, Howe & Dellavalle, 2009). The interactive nature of the internet, together with adolescents’ comfort with the technology suggests that the internet may have more impact on the socialisation process than other media (Lee & Conroy, 2005). Both New Zealand and Malaysia have excellent internet structures and high levels of uptake into households (Marshall et al., 2006).
In the OTC context, consumers use various media such as magazines and television to obtain information (Hughes et al., 2002). Some consumers may even have made their choice of OTCs based solely on information provided by television advertising (John & Evans, 2000). Reliance on, and exposure to, OTC advertising may increase belief in the efficacy and lower risk of the medicines and encourage young viewers to approve of them without much thought (Atkins, 1978). For example, students in Burak and Damico’s (2000) study used at least one advertised OTC without discussing their choice with a physician and instead depended on product advertising.
44 However, some consumers view advertising as insufficient, and therefore obtain
information from more reliable sources such as doctors or pharmacists. For example, Chambers et al. (1997) found that very few respondents in their study reported obtaining information about OTCs from media such as television and magazines. Another study also found that advertising did not influence consumer choice in buying painkillers and only acted as a reinforcement of the likely decision rather than as an agent to change the actual choice (Paddison & Olsen, 2008). In terms of demographic profiles, brighter, higher status adolescents who are usually healthy and whose parents are less medicine- oriented tend to be more influenced by OTC advertisements (Atkins, 1978). Other media, such as patient information leaflets, may only be used occasionally, when, for example, a medicine is new or if the consumer experiences side effects (Hughes et al., 2002). The internet has also become an attractive option for gathering information and buying
healthcare products, including OTCs. This is evident in dozens of sites describing the use of OTCs for both desirable and undesirable purposes (Gurau, 2005). Descriptions of how to experiment with OTCs are also available on these websites. As Bryner et al. (2006) highlighted, among the factors contributing to abuse of DXM was the availability of numerous websites promoting such abuse.