The Audience They Assign Themselves

Baudouin Dupret (1) , Jean-Noël Ferrié (2)

1 ISP - Institut des Sciences sociales du Politique
2 PACTE - Pacte, Laboratoire de sciences sociales

In examining carefully the constitutive elements of the spots broadcasted by al-Jazeera, al-Manar and al-Hurra, we will show how a televised image is the vehicle of a limited number of logical options. Having at our disposal only these spots, we will try to make explicit the possibilities for reading them which are open to their potential viewers. The analysis of their structural organization will permit a grasp of the range of possibilities resulting from the interaction of the spot, the background affiliations of its producers and intended viewers and the attitudes which result from them. The goal, then, is to draw an accurate picture of the structures and systems of intelligibility associated with these spots as well as the background affiliations which interact with these structures and systems in a way that generates a certain comprehension and appreciation of them.

Keywords: media; ethnomethodology; Arab TV channels; structures of intelligibility; meaning; communication

Domains: Sociology

Baudouin Dupret, Jean-Noël Ferrié. The Audience They Assign Themselves: Three Arab Channels and Their "Self-Presentation" (al-Jazeera, al-Manar, al-Hurra). Ethnographic Studies, 2007, 9, pp.62-79. ⟨halshs-00194052⟩