Description
A Master of Arts Thesis in Translation and Interpreting (English/Arabic/English) by Nourah Almaiman entitled, Loser Becomes Winner: Translating Reality Shows for the Arab World." Thesis advisor is Dr. Said Faiq and was submitted in April 2012. Available are both hard and soft copies of the thesis.
Abstract
The general belief is that reality television's diffusive intrusion into Arab media discourse is tarnishing the culture and identity of the target audience with that reshaping the role ideology plays in translation. This thesis aims to explore the nature of translation in cultural encounters between East and West, highlight equivalence and adaptation as representative constitutive notions in that process, and discuss the considerations taken when rendering reality shows into Arab/ic versions. The data collected for this thesis comes from Season 1 Premieres of the U.S. reality show "The Biggest Loser" and its Arab/ic counterpart "الرابح الاكبر" (lit. The Biggest Winner). Although a vital area of intercultural communication, translation studies in this arena is complicated, sometimes ignored, and deemed insignificant or even frivolous. Therefore limited concrete research focusing on this area of study even exists, which means a need to start acknowledging this domain in order to find disciplines and results for further advancements and positive outcomes in the Arab media spectrum is ideally necessary.
