Motives of Arabic Speaking Viewers for Watching English or Dubbed TV Programs

Abstract

This research studies the motives that lead Arabic-speaking university students to watch television programs in English or dubbed in Arabic, and diagnoses the possible effects of these programs on these young people. A field study was conducted on a sample of viewers of the MBC2 and MBC4 Channels in the UAE. A questionnaire was used as a tool to cover a sample of the community comprised of 200 young people who attend various public and private universities in the UAE, aged generally between 18 and 30. The applied study proves that there is no relationship between gender and audience preference, and that there is an independence of respondents' academic specialization and choice of channel. The study's results show that learning English is among the most important motives for the respondents to watch these programs and that 90% of respondents believe that watching foreign programs has negative effects on university youth.

Lengua e ideología: la oralidad prefabricada en árabe, ¿en qué árabe?: Identidad, verosimilitud y diglosia.

“…En la misma línea concluye el estudio de Ankit (2014) sobre la opinión de los jóvenes respecto de la producción audiovisual extranjera: "Arab countries are witnessing changes just like the rest of the world, but they come in different forms, as the communities in the Arab world tend to be conservative and to cling to their distinctive cultural features. TV programs are very influential in those societies, as they constitute a significant source of information and entertainment " (Ankit, 2014: 1) La encuesta que realiza este autor entre jóvenes universitarios de los Emiratos Árabes Unidos arroja el dato de que el 90% de los encuestados considera que ver programas de producción extranjera tiene efectos negativos para los propios jóvenes.…”