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Research question # 1
How did participants express affective interaction to the cultural
thematic and characters that symbolized or portrayed the Muslim
culture in the telenovela “El Clon”?
The posts are analyzed and categorized as an expression of affective
interaction when they reflect a reaction, positive or negative,
to either the characters of the telenovela or the cultural thematic
associated with them. In the 310 messages analyzed, 11% (35) are
categorized as predominantly presenting affective interaction. As
previously posited by different studies, (Sood 2002; Sood &
Rogers, 2000) these categories are multilayered constructs with
overlapping dimensions.
Posters are vocal in expressing their feelings about the characters,
many times offering their point of view regarding the character’s
behavior. In the following post we can see how the message writer
feels positive affective interaction towards Mohamed, and displays
criticism regarding Jade’s behavior:
Poor Mohamed
“Still trying to clear things up with Noehmia. I love his
character now. He's good comedy relief. I loved how he had to explain
to Latifah why Noehmia was so upset about being called a gallina...."Tio
Abdul" would have thought this about her. haha I also adore
how he and Latifah are still very much in love and making love whenever
they can. I think that is just so adorable, especially for a non-Muslim
to see this kind of affection in a Muslim marriage.
I can't wait to see Mayisa's response to Mel's boyfriend/bodyguard.
And when the heck is Jade going to be smart and stop doing all these
sneaky things in front of Said. and is she just not thinking about
her daughter at all?! Apparently not because she thinks that she'd
be able to have custody of Khadija. Hello, the little girls knows
only one man as her father and Jade is going to take that away from
her. Gosh, how selfish!!!!!!!”
In this post the writer comments about a scene of the novela where
a miscommunication happened between Mohamed and Noemia due to cultural
and linguistic differences. Mohamed tries to pay a compliment to
Noemia and ended up calling her a “gallina”, which supposedly
is a compliment for him, while in Brazil calling a woman a chicken
is a grave insult. Gloria Perez with this scene tried to convey
in a humorous way the difficulties of multicultural communication.
For this poster, the character Mohamed inspired positive feelings.
However, the message writer uses a qualifier to describe that the
love for the character is not granted since the beginning of the
novela. The phrase ‘I love his character now’ explains
it. While this novela is a melodramatic series, and is many times
criticized for that, Gloria Perez is cautious not to present the
characters as a black and white composition. The totally bad, or
totally good character so common in the melodrama, only happens
with the character Alicinha.This character is added later in the
script, maybe to accomplish just that, to be the novela’s
villain. Even in this post, the writer disagrees with the protagonist’s
behavior that in her opinion did not think much about her daughter,
before attempting to sneak out of the house to see Lucas.
While “O Clone” is not an entertainment-education soap
opera per se, it brings the theme of Muslim culture to the screen
and sheds some light towards the beliefs and customs associated
with Islam. One of the premises of entertainment-education is the
concept of observational learning championed by social learning/cognitive
theory. The poster talks about how rewarding it is for a non-Muslim
to see displays of affection in a Muslim marriage: “I also
adore how he and Latifah are still very much in love and making
love whenever they can. I think that is just so adorable, especially
for a non-Muslim to see this kind of affection in a Muslim marriage.”
One of the components of observational learning is motivational
process Bandura (1977), which posits that people are more likely
to adopt a behavior if it is projected in a rewarding outcome. It
is not intended to comment here if the poster is going to adopt
a more affectionate behavior, however, it can be understood that
the message writer appreciates seeing affection displayed by Mohamed
and Latiffa, and that this may be counteracting stereotypical notions
of man-woman relationships and pre-arranged marriage. The modeled
behavior, an affectionate Muslim couple, might be adopted by the
message writer as a concept to bring down barriers of pre-existing
notions of Muslim marriage.
In the same message the writer also displays critical interaction
towards Jade’s behavior. The poster expresses disagreement
with Jade’s attempts to see Lucas behind Saids’ back,
risking the custody of her daughter, which the poster perceives
as a selfish behavior. Under Freire’s notion of critical pedagogy,
the writer, based on the concepts she knows and the values that
she has of paternity/filial rights to try to formalize her concerns,
not taking the scene for what it is being portrayed, a woman fighting
for her love, but further analyzing the consequences of Jade’s
behavior. The affective interaction is strongly noted with the poster
talking about Jade as if she was actually a person, able to configure
her situation and decide upon it.
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