Staging and Monitoring in Arabic and Non-Arabic Media Discourse

Staging and Monitoring in Arabic and Non-Arabic Media Discourse PDF

Adas, Dana Omar Abed Al-Kareem

Supervisor(s)

Ruqayah Herzallah -

Discussion Commity

1. Dr. Ruqayah Herzallah (First Supervisor) 2. Dr. Odeh Odeh (Second Supervisor) 3. Dr. Nabil Alawi (Committee Member) 4. Dr. Ahmad Atawneh (External Examiner).

صفحة

Abstract :

This study aims at finding out how Arab & Western Media writers reflect their own manipulative reportage. In plain terms, the purpose of this study is to objectively foresee the responses of the readers through studying the hidden perspectives in media discourse. In the course of analyzing the texts from a discoursal perspective, the researcher will highlight how Arab and Non-Arab media writers stage their language. The analytical categories of the study include staging (thematic structures and linearization, passivization or activization, and lexical choice). Staging reveals how the writer’s topic area is structured and how avoiding staging, especially in media discourse, receives no cooperation on part of the readers, i.e. there is a good likelihood that they aren't implicitly affected. For the sake of analysis, three topics from six Arab, and six Non-Arab newspapers, are extracted. This data is analyzed in accordance with discourse analytical approaches (Brown and Yule, 1983; Beaugrande & Dressler, 1981). In this vein, one can understand how media is effectively manipulated in the Arab & Non-Arab Worlds. Other samples from expository news reports translated from Arabic into English are to be chosen to see how Arab translators render the texts into English since the study builds on the assumption that foreigners may read what Arabs write. The study ends with the conclusion that Arab media discourse (according to the present analysis) addresses two views, one defending the Israelis, and the other favouring the Palestinians. The former is portrayed through implicit linearization, i.e. linearization of themes. The latter is supported through (inconsistent) lexical emotiveness. When the text is translated into English, there is a good chance that it would not reflect the Palestinian viewpoint. Arab media writers may unintentionally order the themes in a way reflecting the Israeli attitude. It is this (un)intentionality that should be taken at face value. The study recommends that translators exert all their effort to transfer the actual viewpoint of the Arab public, and not that of the political parties or leaders. Arab writers, of the presented data, are required to pay attention to staging devices in media discourse especially when it comes to its indirect and hidden modes such as linearization.

Full Article