Methodology of Social Sciences
Mahdieh Heidari; Zhila Mashhadi; Afsaneh Mozaffari
Abstract
The most important collective identity is national and ethnic identity because it has an important role in culture, society, politics and even economy. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to represent the national and ethnic identity in the Noon Khe TV series and in its selected parts. The ...
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The most important collective identity is national and ethnic identity because it has an important role in culture, society, politics and even economy. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to represent the national and ethnic identity in the Noon Khe TV series and in its selected parts. The current research is qualitative and the research field of study is Noon Khe TV series. Regarding the subject of the research, only the parts of series that are somehow related to national and ethnic identity were analyzed. For this purpose, John Fiske’s Semiotic method was used and based on the unit of analysis, 16 parts were selected and analyzed purposefully.Keywords: Representation, Semiotics, Noon Khe Series, Ethnic Identity, National Identity. IntroductionThe most important type of collective identity is national and ethnic identity; because it has an important role in culture, society, politics and even economy. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to represent the national and ethnic identity in the Noon Khe TV series and in its selected parts. The current research is qualitative and the research field of study is Noon Khe TV series. Regarding the subject of the research, only the parts of series that are somehow related to national and ethnic identity were analyzed. For this purpose, John Fiske’s Semiotic method was used and based on the unit of analysis, 16 parts were selected and analyzed purposefully. Therefore, according to the stated contents of the present research, the review of the Noon Khe series seeks to answer the question, how is the representation of ethnic and national identity in the above-mentioned series? Therefore, according to the above, the present study on Noon Khe series seeks to answer this question: how is the representation of ethnic and national identity in this series?2. Theoretical background and literature reviewGhasemi et al. (2022) in a study entitled "Representation of lifestyle in TV series (case study: Ilam IRIB)" investigated the identity and culture of Kurdish speakers. They have investigated the types of identity components in the local network with a quantitative statistical method and categorized them from the point of view of their application.Hashemizadeh Manshadi et al. (2021 addressed the same issue in a study entitled “Representation of Iranian identity in the popular series Hezardastan with a semiotic analysis approach”.In this article, researchers have examined a historical series that has the strongest artistic content and uses the dominant model of John Fiske. The author did not analyze the entire series and only focused on 20 scenes from this series, and the results of the article were obtained from these 20 scenes which affected the generalizability of the results. Further, in the theoretical background section, ethnic identity, national identity, elements of national identity and the difference between these and representation in media theories have been mentioned which is the way of showing the facts and events in the media, and in fact, it is a representation of a manipulated image of the external reality. MethodologyThe method of this research is qualitative and its purpose was representing the national and ethnic identity in the Noon Khe series. For how to represent the national and ethnic identity in the Noon Khe series, the semiotics method has been used with an emphasis on John Fiske's approach. AnalysisJohn Fisk Codes AnalysisLevel 1. Representation of ethnic and national identity in the Payetakt and Noon Khe series based on social codesReality level:Social codes: 1.Spoken language 2.Dressing codes 3.Behavioral codesSpoken language: the language code of the hero of this series is belonged to one of the villages of Kermanshah province, so the accent and` speech are one of the most important elements of comedy and in a way, the inferior position of the villagers is a representation of the superior position of the urban dwellers.Dressing: The way of dressing of rural people looks sloppy and undesirable to urban people, and the shape of the dress shows that the villagers do not pay attention to the appearance and the type of dress.Behavior:In this series, the behavior of the villagers is shown in such a way that the villagers are unable to face the problems and they act stunned, Confused and noisy.They have behaviors such as helplessness in the face of new problems and elements of the urban dweller,attention-seeking and hasty, which is in conflict with dignity and modesty.There is no privacy in people's lives and most of the people in the village are aware of the details of each other's lives, and in a way, the inferior position of the villagers is represented in front of the superior position of the urban dwellers. Noon Khe SeriesTable 1. Level 1 of realitySocial codes Speech codeTone of voice, accent, use of special terms for phonological codes (syntax)Body code (facial expression, hand movement, etc.)Dressing codesThe type of clothes usedAction codes (behavior)Walking (running inside the house,),not having privacy, fanatical and stubborn, noisy.Helpless in the face of exaggerated attention-seeking problemsLevel 2. Representation of ethnic and national identity in the Noon Khe series based on technical codesBy using technical (auxiliary) codes including: lighting, music, editing, it directs the audience from the text, and technical codes have been used to induce (good or bad face, fear, terror...).Table 2. Level 2 of technical codesTechnical codesCamera, lighting, Film Editing, music, Sound recordingLevel 3- National identity in ideological codesIt reproduces relevant social and individual elements in a social cohesion and popularity to show the superiority of national identity to ethnic. In fact, the sum of social and technical levels ends at the ideological level.In total the findings of social codes and technical codes show that villages with sloppy clothing and undesirable behaviors such as: unable to face problems, bewildered, confused and noisy. Helplessness in the face of the new problems and elements of the attention-seeking urban dweller and their hasty walking, which is in conflict with your dignity. The positive point in this series is the family friendship of the main character of the story, which is shown in all the seasons of the series.Helplessness in the face of the new problems and elements of the attention-seeking urban dweller and their hasty walking, which is in conflict with dignity. The positive point in this series is the family friendship of the main character of the story, which is shown in all the seasons of the series.Table 3. Level 3 of IdeologyIdeological levelIndividualism, patriarchy, social class, materialism, race, family capitalism, friendship, determined decision maker ConclusionIn this research, the researcher has investigated and analyzed the representation using John Fiske's semiotic method. The findings of the research indicate that the ethnic identity in this series is shown below the scale of the national identity. Ethnic identity is marginalized and reproduced as a stereotype. People of this ethnicity are people with low occupational status, poor appearance, naive, gullible, and without a plan for their own lives. In the Noon Khe series, the analysis of the situation based on the social codes of the unlucky and patriarchal ethnic group has been stereotyped.AcknowledgementThe authors of the article express their appreciation to the staff of the Social Sciences Quarterly, especially the respected editor, who they cooperated perfectly with the authors in judging, preparing and publishing this article.
