Hermeneutics of Administrative Tolerance in Advertising in Cameroon
Issue:
Volume 3, Issue 2, June 2023
Pages:
12-17
Received:
15 August 2023
Accepted:
28 August 2023
Published:
31 August 2023
Abstract: Advertising is a commercial activity that generates billions. In Cameroon, its contribution to the country economy is facing challenges among which is the administrative tolerance. However, advertising is regulated by the 2006’s Law that defines the nature, roles and interactions between the various players including egulators, advertisers, advertising agencies, and consulting agencies. Therefore, there was a need to understand the mechanisms that contribute to the survival of administrative tolerance that does not serve the development of country’s advertising. Furthermore, the discourse of advertising players concerning administrative tolerance, which is an important characteristic of advertising was analysed using different theoretical perspectives. This epistemic eclecticism used to understand field information related to administrative tolerance placed the research work within a communicational analysis and the theory of ethnomethodology to justify the choice made in descending on the various fields to exchange with the actors involved in the advertising phenomenon observed. Results showed that there are many types of administrative tolerance. It involves many concepts, definitions, and is due to different reasons. The concepts used and which enabled attempting an interpretation of administrative tolerance in the Cameroon advertising environment were the strategies of actors in the sense of Crozier and Foucault's panopticon as well. The thematic content analysis of primary and secondary information revealed negative opinion of stakeholders on the law (73% of the respondents), panoptic (53 % of the respondents) and search for personal interests (53 % of the respondents) as practices leading to the administrative tolerance. In fact, advertising regulators are excusing certain advertising misconducts. At first glance, this may seem like a spontaneous outburst of compassion and understanding (20% of the respondents). However, the concepts of panopticism and strategy have enabled us to understand that it was a calculated logic, fuelled by carefully considered interests.
Abstract: Advertising is a commercial activity that generates billions. In Cameroon, its contribution to the country economy is facing challenges among which is the administrative tolerance. However, advertising is regulated by the 2006’s Law that defines the nature, roles and interactions between the various players including egulators, advertisers, adverti...
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