The Language used Street Billboards in Doha - Essay Example

The Language used Street Billboards in Doha This poster focuses on the language used on street billboards in Doha. According to Guy Cook (2001), there is an inseparable relationship that the language used in the society has an influence on the language on the street billboards. This forms the basis of this research, which aimed to answer these research questions: How does the language of the advertisement show the ideology of Qatari society? How do the language and the design of the billboards tend to persuade the customers?, and who are the target group behind street billboards. The data will be collected by photographing various street billboards and by surveying people on their perception of the language used in street billboards. The findings showed that the design of billboards and Qatari dialect used in most street billboards attracts people most, Arabic and English are mostly used, adverts in Qatari addressed in Arabic uphold Islamic culture, and the target group of most adverts is adults. Objectives of the Study This study aims to show the like between the advertisements’ language and the ideology of the Qatari society. Also, it focuses in the design and the texts of the billboards persuade the customers, and examining the target group behind the language of the billboards used in Qatar society. LITERATURE REVIEW This Literature Review will analyze previous studies done by other scholars on the topic. Literature review typically includes scholarly journals, scholarly books, authoritative databases and primary source. Asmi (2013) explores the role of Islam in Arabic language ideologies. Through juxtaposing of religious and secular traditions, Asmi clearly explains the relationship between Islam and Arabic. The connection between the two greatly affects the political, social and cultural agendas of the Qatari society. Arabic language is considered to be the most powerful symbol of Arabic-Islamic culture and mode of transmission. Islam played an instrumental role in helping Arabic attain its universal status as well as to emerge as one of the world’s principal languages. This is attributed to the fact that Arabic is an important means of natural and cultural revival in most Islamic countries. Kress & Van Leeuwen (2002) asserts that the difference in adverts meaning depends on the relationship between the texts and pictures used. The image and the text used in a billboard should relate in order to convey the message to the intended audience. The written text in any advert often compels readers to stick to the elements being displayed. People perceive pictures differently; however, texts are normally perceived in the same way by people depending on how they read them. O’Donell & Bielsa (2005) state that most organizations exert power to persuade their customers into buying their products through advertisements. In this regard, they express their messages directly to their potential customers. The language that they normally choose is often geared toward convincing their customers into buying their products. Therefore, companies and organizations always choose their language carefully in order to persuade their customers into purchasing their products and services. Burn & Parker (2003) claims that when one is designing a message to pass to others; there are varied factors that should be considered. For instance, one should consider the target group, the social, political and economic constraints of the intended audience. This is extremely important since it gives one the opportunity to tailor the message (advert) in a manner that it will serve its intended purpose and have an impact to its audience. METHODOLOGY The study collected both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected using questionnaires (survey), which was conducted among fifty participants who were randomly selected. Secondary data was collected through photography (observation) were shot randomly along the streets. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS This section presents the discussion of the findings from the survey and observation. Therefore, it will discuss in details whether the street billboards reflect the ideology in Qatari society, the type of adverts that attracts people most, the difficulty of the language used in adverts, the preferred language, what attracts people most (is it the text or the design?), as well as the conventionality of the street adverts. Ideology of the Qatari society on the billboards The study sought to know whether billboards used in Qatari shows the Qatari society ideologies. 68% of the respondents agreed that the nature the billboards used in the Qatari society shows the ideology of the Qatari people, 32% did not agree; and only 18% gave reasons for their answers. The greater percentage agreed to this question since most of the billboards used in Qatar uphold the Qatari ideology. Type of adverts that attracts people most The study revealed that a total number of (50%) respondents indicated that they are attracted to adverts informing people of local and international events, while (44%) said they attracted to food adverts. A small percentage said they are attracted to fashion adverts. This is ascribed to the fact that the interviewed people uphold their culture and are also looking forward to adverts popularizing such events. This shows that adults are the ones being targeted by the adverts. Difficulty of the language used in adverts The research revealed that the language used in adverts is easy to understand. A total number of (100%) respondents confirmed that the language used in adverts is easy for them to comprehend. This can be ascribed to the fact that most billboards use Arabic and English language in the adverts. The two languages are the most commonly used language in Doha with Arabic being the main language and English the second language. The preferred language The research indicated that Qatari dialect is preferred by most of the people. This finding is in line with comments made by the respondents who confirmed that they prefer Qatari dialect to Fusha. (54%) of the respondents chose Qatari dialect as their language of preference; whereas (46%) respondents chose Fusha. This can be ascribed to the fact that a majority of the interviewed people are well conversant with Qatari dialect as opposed to Fusha. Centre of attraction The research indicated that the design of billboards attract people most. This is ascribed to the fact that (60.42%) respondents chose design, whereas (39.58%) chose texts to be their centre of attraction. For example, the Malabar Gold and Diamonds advert has an appealing design to attract its customers. The photo of the beautiful woman wearing an astounding necklace can attract ladies looking for jewelry. Words affecting people most on adverts The research indicated that colloquial words attract people most on billboards. (54%) respondents revealed that they are attracted by colloquial words, (20%) respondents are affected by formal words, (14%) by informal words, specified their preferred choice of words. This was a clear indication that most people preferred adverts that are characteristic of familiar and informal conversation. The conventionality of the street adverts The research indicated that the conventionality of the street adverts in Qatari society is unbalanced. This is ascribed to the fact that (44.90%) respondents said that some adverts are conventional, while some are not; (40.82%) respondents disagreed that adverts are not conventional; and (22.45%) respondents agreed that Qatari billboards are conventional. The discrepancy in the responses can be ascribed to the fact the conventionality depends on individual tastes and preference. CONCLUSION The purpose of this study was to investigate the language used on street billboards in Doha. The major conclusions from this study based on the findings and discussions are: The mostly used languages in Qatari billboards are Arabic and English since Arabic is the main language spoken in Doha while English is used by the several foreigners living in Qatar. Secondly, there is a strong connection between Arabic and Islam making most of the adverts in Qatari addressed in Arabic uphold Islamic culture in them since the two are seen to correlate to a greater depth. Thirdly, the target group of most adverts is adults. Lastly, the design of billboards attracts people most. The image and the text used in a billboard should relate in order to convey the message to the intended audience. The written text in any advert often compels readers to stick to the elements being displayed. References Asmi, R. (2013). Language in the Mirror: Language Ideologies, Schooling and Islam in Qatar. Columbia University Academic Commons. Burn, A. and Parker, D. (2003). Analysing media texts. London: Continuum Cook, G. (2001). The Discourse of Advertising. London: Routledge. Goddard, A. (2002). The Language of Advertising: Written Texts. Psychology Press. Kress, G.R. & Van Leeuwen, T. (2002). Multimodal Discourse: The modes and media of contemporary communication. London: Edward Arnold. O’Donell, G. & Bielsa, K. (2005). Discourse Analysis. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Read More