reaction - Audience Reception Analysis of Moroccan Public Service Broadcasting

“Audience Reception Analysis of Moroccan Public Service Broadcasting” by Zaid Bouziane uses Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding theory to the dynamics of public broadcast television in Morocco, specifically in the way they correspond to the expectations and the lifestyle of lower income Moroccan viewers. Bouziane also uses the study to examine the effectiveness of the theory in itself, concluding that it is not applicable to every situation, including the Moroccan context.

The study is conducted through a focus group, which Bouziane deems as an appropriate stand-alone method due to the multicultural and multilingual nature of the Moroccan society.

The overall findings of this study were very surprising. First, I was expecting the fact that most Moroccan viewers prefer Moroccan tv channels or Arab channels over European channels. But what I was not expecting was that a lot of them prefer Arab channels over Moroccan channels, because they feel that it is easier for them to understand other Arab channels (Egyptian, Saudi, etc.) that just use varied forms of Arabic over Moroccan channels that can use languages that they don’t know (French for example).

I found it very interesting when one of the participants of the study, Yamna, said the following: “when I see people sad on tv, I feel sad too, and when they look happy, I smile and laugh too. I am not always sure why they’re sad or happy”. She said this when talking about shows that are not in darija, because she did not understand the language, even though the programs are on Moroccan channels.

The quote by the farmer who said that his family could not even understand the Moroccan weather broadcasts, especially since it is such a vital part of their livelihoods, was also very impactful for me.

Due to the high illiteracy rate in Morocco, television is the main and sometimes only accessible form of media for the majority of lower-income Moroccans. Because of this, it is very important to ensure that this segment of the population can relate to the content that is broadcasted on public channels, and most importantly, ensure that they can easily understand it. So the most important aspect is to feature TV content in the varying languages that Moroccans know as their mother tongues, meaning less content in traditional Arabic and more in darija, amazigh, hassaniya eventually, etc.  

This also involves the elements of content diversity, with forms of entertainment moving away from catering to the needs of the elites to include content that is more relatable to their lives.  

Bouziane, Zaid. “Audience Reception Analysis of Moroccan Public Service Broadcasting”. p. 284-309. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication. 2014. Web.