A Critical Discourse Analysis of the adapted telenovela Rubi
ABSTRACT
Media, particularly television, is very powerful in constructing images on how we view men and women. Women, nowadays, are given more freedom to express and liberate themselves. But in media, women are still incessantly represented in traditional ways that favor male-supremacy.
This study focuses on how discourse constructs and reinforces the traditional roles of women through the representation of the five female characters in the adapted telenovela Rubi. Using Critical Discourse Analysis and applying the frameworks Post-modern Feminism and the Episteme by Foucault in looking into discourse and Political Economy in defining the character of television, this study examined the traditional and resistive social roles of the five female characters in the adapted telenovela Rubi. This study revealed that even if there was an attempt to represent women in empowering roles, they were still represented in ways that reinforce the traditional roles assigned to women through the years, thus verifying the existence of patriarchy in the discourse of the adapted telenovela Rubi.
The researcher recommends to conduct an audience study on the effects of the representation of women in the adapted telenovela Rubi to its audience, in order to find out if these representations are interpreted by its audience as oppressive or liberating for women.
Santiago, R.P (2011). Ang Bidang Kontrabida: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the adapted telenovela Rubi, Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.
Subject: Women on television, Feminism