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By Bouchra Ijourk
Rabat – If you take a minute to travel across the world’s media channels, especially in countries whose channels show “respect” for their viewers, you will learn and discover many news, events, political, intellectual figures and scientists in many realms.
You get a sense of belonging to those countries just because they news channels keep you abreast of the latest news.
Media policy in these countries is mostly well structured and built to target the viewers’ intellect and instincts in order to stimulate their reactions. No one ignores the power of Media with its powerful hegemonic power to inform and misinform. Watching what is being broadcast on our local TV Channels especially during peak hours when people are comfortably sitting in their living rooms to watch TV is cause for interest and at the same time for pause: While doing just that, I come across names like Bilal, Luqman, Nadira, Kamal…etc. These are the names of some action heroes in Turkish series that are dubbed in Moroccan colloquial Arabic, which has been on TV for months on 2M TV.
To my surprise, I discovered yesterday that another gull-like series from a different nationality is being broadcast right before it. I had the impression that we are being treated as tamed citizens who lack a culture, an identity, and no economic, social or political concerns.
There are many heated debates on language, dialect, identity, the draft bill on sexual harassment, the parliament, gasoline prices, students’ behaviors, internet and everything else that concern the Moroccan citizen in their everyday life with their family.
‘Bilal’ or ‘Luqman’ and the Moroccan reality are two opposed poles. I really wonder if there is any kind of rationale over what is being promoted in these series. I wish that those specialists in social behavioral science and self-development who preach on private radio stations, could sensitize their audience of women who listen to their ideas and pieces of advice about the dangerous impact of these series especially on kids and teenagers.
It is stunning to find out that these sop-operas glorify adultery, imposes its normalization and pictures love, loyalty and sacrifice in a very weird frame. What did the Moroccan do to deserve this mass massacre of their families inside their homes? Aren’t we in need to come up with a smart responsible media that takes the initiative and informs?
Do media have an ethical obligation to be fair, just, educational and informative? I am not against broadcasting foreign works or even dubbing them, but drama is real and not junky. Or did we become an open market for other people’s leftovers and dirt as if we were cold hearted, as if we were creatively paralyzed?
This article was first published on MWN Arabic and translated into English by Mona Badri
