The Ethical Impacts of Arabizing TV Dramas

Abstract

The idea of this study has developed through the researcher's observation of the emergence of a phenomenon  represented in the Arabization of foreign drama by producing and acting the Arabic versions, especially those that achieved success, spread and public interaction. These drama series tell stories that occurred, written, produced and displayed in foreign countries, as they offer social culture for that society in which they have been produced and reflect the nature of relations between its members. They also expose sensitive subjects such as marriage, marital infidelity, divorce, among others.

 For that reason,  the researcher has been urged to investigate such an issue in order to understand, analyse, and assess public opinion about it. It is also in an attempt to identify and realize the value-related effects these dramas hold. The problem of this study is represented in the cultural and social values carried by this transformed drama, which is not limited to being different from our values and culture, but rather poses a threat to our cultural and social system, especially to what concerns the family-building process.

After developing the methodological and theoretical framework for the article, The researcher identifies the research community for the Arabized series and selects a sample of them to analyse the ethics they convey. The researcher also specifies the Arabized dramas displayed during the period between 2022 and 2024 (Crystal, Traitor, Stiletto), all of which are displayed on MBC and Shahid.net. Furthermore, the researcher aims to propose a model for assessing the degree of audience approval of the cultural and social moral values depicted in Arabized dramas. This involves measuring the attitudes of viewers towards the three selected drama series in the research sample.

The results of the study include:

First: The Arabizing of T.V dramas did not change the core contents and the values they express.

Second: The Arabization of TV dramas works directly and indirectly to market the cultural and social values, contained within the Arabized drama, to our Arab society through our language, settings, names and ourselves, as if they were our values and try to imprint these ethics to transfer the unfamiliar to be familiar.

Third: The Arabized drama showing a lot of negative values such as marital infidelity and illegal pregnancy and illegitimate children and accepting the infidelity of the wife, scandals, distortion of reputation and revenge as well as many other values and was not the offering and treatment margin, but came according to the vision and dramatic construction represents a different culture that poses a danger in instilling these values and behaviours in the imagination of the public.