Making Sense of Aljazeera’s Televised News: A Schema Theory Perspective

Abstract

Realizing that there exists a definite dearth of information on how English televised news discourse is processed by non-native viewers, I seek to examine how Moroccan viewers make sense of Aljazeera 24-hour English (henceforth Aljazeera) news discourse in terms of comprehension and recall. In light of schema theory research (Carrell, 1981; 1983; Hoijer, 1987; 1989; 1991; Kintsch, 1989), I designed pre-, while- and post-viewing tasks to explore the extent to which Moroccan viewers’ linguistic and extra-linguistic prior knowledge mediate their processing of Aljazeera’s televised news content. This study reveals that viewer-bound parameters, namely relevant-topic knowledge, linguistic literacy and familiarity with televised news formats, truly mold the way non-natives process authentic English news discourse.