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The Social Circulation of Media Scripts and Collaborative Meaning-Making in Moroccan and Lebanese Family Discourse Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Schulthies, Becky Lyn Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 28/09/2021 22:37:22 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/194677 THE SOCIAL CIRCULATION OF MEDIA SCRIPTS AND COLLABORATIVE MEANING-MAKING IN MOROCCAN AND LEBANESE FAMILY DISCOURSE by Becky Lyn Schulthies _____________________ Copyright © Becky Lyn Schulthies 2009 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the SCHOOL OF ANTHROPOLOGY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2009 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Becky Lyn Schulthies entitled The Social Circulation of Media Scripts and Collaborative Meaning-Making in Moroccan and Lebanese Family Discourse and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy ____________________________________________________________Date: 11/19/09 Dr. Norma Mendoza-Denton ____________________________________________________________Date: 11/19/09 Dr. Jane Hill ____________________________________________________________Date: 11/19/09 Dr. Thomas Park ____________________________________________________________Date: 11/19/09 Dr. Leila Hudson Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate's submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ____________________________________________________________Date: 11/19/09 Dissertation Director: Dr. Norma Mendoza-Denton 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgement of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: Becky Lyn Schulthies 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This has truly been a collaborative work, and I want to express gratitude to all the people who have contributed their time, talents, and support to its completion, even those not mentioned here. I could never have accomplished this without the Moroccan and Lebanese families who generously allowed me to interview, observe and record their interactions. Although I cannot name them, I was blessed in my associations. These good people not only expanded my understanding of cultural circulation, the creative capacity of performativity and intervisuality, but also of the groundedness of sharing food and friendship. They opened homes and hearts to me, separated people from politics, and continue to trust my ability to represent their contribution to the knowledge enterprise. I appreciate the research support provided by the Fulbright Program and the Moroccan-American Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange, the American Institute for Maghrib Studies, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the Council for American Overseas Research Centers. Learning multiple varieties of Arabic sufficiently well to accomplish this project was a collaborative task as well. I need to thank Paul Hoskisson whose scholarly tutelage and encouragement sent me to Syria. Donna Lee Bowen introduced me to Morocco and fostered my academic propensities. I want to thank the teachers and interlocutors who enriched my understanding of Arabic and Arabs in all their diversity: Dilworth Parkinson, Samira Farwaneh, Sulaf al-Zoubi, Halima Mjahed, Abdelhafid, Mohamed Zawahiri, Abdessalam, Mohammed Barakat, Wafa El Abdi, Lubna Boakraa, Fatiha Faraoun, Siham Oubry, Zoubida Rami, Lhoucine and Zahra Boum, Mirella, Denise Badawi, Razan al-Salah, Nermine al-Horr, Fouad Shehabeddine, Margo Akoury, Antoinette Khazan, Kassem Aina, and Georges Farra. I also must include the countless Moroccan and Lebanese family members, students, and random folks who challenged and encouraged my Arabic skills. I also benefited from intellectual dialogues with colleagues. Natalie Jensen, Jenn Neves, Dylan George, Mcarthur, Allison Stockman, and Andrea DenBoer encouraged me to think academically without being self-absorbed. I would have never made it past doctoral coursework without Nicole Taylor, Aomar Boum, Mourad Mjahed, Kate Goldade, and Ari Amand. Norma Mendoza-Denton's mentoring and training, Jane Hill's brilliance and wit, Leila Hudson's keen theoretical insights, and Tad Park's timely advice can all be found interdiscursively woven throughout my thought and writing. Malika Khandagui was a dear friend, colleague, and refuge in Morocco, as was Diane Riskedahl in Lebanon. Hassan Rafik, Mohamed Dhabi, Khalid Bekkaoui, Abdellatif Hakim, Abdelmajid Hajji, Bouazza Bagui, Abdellatif Bencherifa, Dima Dabbous-Sensenig and Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous, Muhammad Ali Khalidi, Anne Bennett, Kristin Monroe and Matthew Perkins were key intellectual contributors to my ethnographic experience. Last but not least, I express appreciation to my family. It's a long way from dairyman's daughter to doctorate. The work ethic, passion to know, and shared humanity I learned in rural Oregon formed the base for all I am and do. 5 DEDICATION For Mohammed, with whom dialogue has been my delight, whose ideas are part and parcel of this work, and without whose support I could never have accomplished as much as I have. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF IMAGES..............................................................................................................8 ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................9 TRANSLITERATION KEY.............................................................................................11 I. "HOW WE STROLL THROUGH THE WORLD": MEANING METAPHORS AND TELEVISION....................................................................................................................13 A. Media Scripts.........................................................................................................18 B. Home as Unit of Cultural Production.....................................................................20 C. Locational Nodes, Language Codes and Linguistic Modes...................................29 1. Urban Nodes and Cultures of Circulation........................................................33 2. Language Codes and Cultures of Circulation...................................................40 a. Lebanese Linguascape...............................................................................43 b. Moroccan Linguascape..............................................................................47 3. Media Script Linguistic Modes and Cultures of Circulation............................59 a. Intervisuality..............................................................................................72 D. Media Ethnography................................................................................................78 1. Metadiscursive Reporting on Gendered Viewing Patterns...............................90 2. Emic Theories of Media Consumption.............................................................92 II. (RE)-WRITING TUHAMI: THE POLITICS OF METHODOLOGY AND REPRESENTATION.......................................................................................................102 A. Grappling with Place............................................................................................113 B. Research Design and Adaptations........................................................................118 1. Phase I: Social, Historical, Economic and Political Interpretive Frames.......125 2. Phase II: Media Sources, Interviews and Participant Observation.................140 3. Phase III: Family Discursive Mechanisms and Audio-Recording.................142 4. Phase IV: Transcription and Discourse Analysis...........................................145 III. ATTUNED TO THE SOUNDS OF DIFFERENCE: ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMMING AND HIERARCHIES OF LANGUAGE IDEOLOGIES................149 A. Mediascapes, Language and Circulation of Media Scripts..................................154 B. A Pan-Arab Audience Linguascape.....................................................................166 1. Moroccan Bivalancy and Media Script Parody..............................................173 2. Lebanese Localization of Difference: Linguistic Hierarchies........................177 C. Co-Constructing a Differentiated Pan-Arab Imaginary........................................182 D. Talk Like an Egyptian: Appropriating Linguistic Identities................................200 IV. INTERGENERATIONAL AUTHORITY AND DISTRIBUTED LITERACIES...211 A. Television Talk and Interpretive