Interruptions of Men and Women in Selected Debates of Al-Jazeera Arabic Channel: A Pragmatic Analysis of the Opposite Direction

Abstract

The present study aims to explore the gender patterns during interruptions in the context of political television discussions in the Arab community. Five mixed-sex episodes of the well-known program “The Opposite Direction” presented on Al-Jazeera Channel were examined. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were carried out to determine, which gender did more interruptions than the other. The study has considered each gender to use verbal and non-verbal statements to express that they were doing interruptions or that they were being interrupted. The results showed that women interrupted more than did men. Moreover, it has also been shown that men reacted in a more severe and aggressive way, when they were interrupted by women.