The representation of conceptual frames of women in drama : a comparative analytical Study between video on demand platforms and television series in Egypt /

Abstract

Drama, across time, has consistently become a significant popular tool of media and a resource for researching and comprehending society. This is because of the fact that they provide additional insight about how the society views and defines itself, as well as how people are portrayed. This comparative study examines and analyzes how women are conceptualized in terms of social status representations along with the religiously featured characters in TV series and VOD platforms. As the process of modernization has taken place; more modern and contemporary images of women are increasingly emerging. Accordingly, the significance of this study relies upon the fact of comparing Egyptian women portrayals in traditional television series and the contemporary video on demand services. Although several studies have shown that women are stereotypically portrayed in drama series, most of these studies have concentrated on the roles in which women are portrayed rather than examining additional variables that include their predominant frames, their personality traits, and their salient characteristics in terms of their social status and religious features. This study fills a gap in the literature by selecting specific representations to analyze how frequently certain frames with specific personality traits appear in drama portrayals, which eventually leads to conceptual frames of women. Moreover, exploring variations in how women are portrayed depending on the platform. The climax episodes of each series will be the focus of analytical examinations of the female characters in five television drama series and five video on demand (VOD) series since this is when the characters evolve and the motif shifts. Qualitative cinematographic analysis is used to assess the symbolic semiotic concept's impact on meanings construction and how the representations of women may be affected in conjunction with quantitative content analysis.