Portrayal of Women in Advertising on Facebook and Instagram
Portrayal of Women in Advertising on Facebook and Instagram

Author(s): Fab-Ukozor Nkem, Onyebuchi Alexander Chima, Obayi Paul Martins, Anorue Luke Ifeanyi, Nnenna Fiona Onwude
Subject(s): Gender Studies, Media studies, Marketing / Advertising
Published by: Scientia Moralitas Research Institute
Keywords: Social Media; Advertising; Facebook; Instagram; Portrayal; Women;
Summary/Abstract: The growth in the use of social media in the developing world has encouraged most people and businesses to take the advert of their products or services to the social media. This study sought to find out how women are portrayed on social media adverts using the Goffman’s category, which indicates cases of stereotype and subjugation of women in the society. This study was anchored on the framing theory. The researchers used content analysis research design. Using Wimmer and Dominick online calculator on a population of 1,523, the researchers arrived at a sample size of 431 and increased it by 71% to obtain approximately 600. Code sheet and coding guide served as the instrument for data collection. The inter-coder reliability was established using Holsti and Pearson’s r formulas. Data analyses were done using the cluster approach. Using Goffman’s categories, this study revealed that women are subliminally portrayed as sex objects in some selected online ads. This is made evident in the results from body display, relative size, functional ranking, and family categories, which revealed that from the angle of Facebook, 33.8% of the pictures-based advert revealed body display, while on the part of Instagram, 28.9% of the videos showed significant body display. Further analysis revealed that picture (35.2%) and video (25.7%) adverts on Instagram have more propensity to show feminine touches than Facebook, and that over 35% of the video content on social media has one form of ritualization of subordination or the other.

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