Cultural legitimation and evaluation in Moroccan media discourse

Language, Discourse & SocietyJune 2025

Badiaa Elharraki [1]

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15762946

[1] Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah University, ORCID: 0000-0001-7332-6675, badiaa.elharraki@gmail.com
 
 

Abstract

This paper endeavors to investigate the discourse of women who endured marital violence in Moroccan media, with a particular focus on the cultural context. Specifically, we aim to explore how these women employed legitimation to justify their discourse, constructing arguments that depict them as victims and condemn their abusive husbands. Our analysis focused on content from the talk show “Qesset Nnass” on the Moroccan TV channel MEDI 1TV. In this show, women expressed their views by using legitimation strategies, conveying messages that necessitate a nuanced understanding of the cultural backdrop for interpretation. Another objective of this paper is to provide a cultural evaluation of the discourse of women subjected to marital violence. Our research is grounded in the recognition of the intricate and significant interaction between media and society in our search to evaluate the modality of women’s persuasive efforts within the framework of the show. We employed a qualitative method to analyze the discourse of women impacted by violence through direct observation. This methodological approach enables us to delve into the relationship between media content and culture, shedding light on the extent of its mutual and direct nature

Keywords: legitimation, discourse, gender violence, cultural evaluation, media, Morocco

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