Rhetorical Strategies in Arabic Digital Media: A Qualitative Analysis of Aristotle's Appeals in the Podcast ‘/kiːf tan.d͡ʒaħ al.ʕa.laː.qaːt/’ (How Relationships Succeed)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33806/ijaes1085Keywords:
Aristotle’s rhetoric, ethos, logos, pathos, podcast, YouTubeAbstract
This study examines the rhetorical strategies employed in the most viewed Arabic podcast on YouTube, "/kiːf tan.d͡ʒaħ al.ʕa.laː.qaːt maʕaː jaː.sir al.ħu.ziː.miː, bud.kaːst fin.d͡ʒaːn/" ("How Relationships Succeed" with Yasser Al-Huzaimi), which has received over 110 million views. The dataset consists of a single episode lasting 3 hours and 3 minutes, professionally transcribed by a native Arabic transcriber to ensure accuracy and preserve linguistic and contextual nuances. The transcript was then imported into NVivo software for systematic qualitative analysis. Using thematic coding based on Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals—logos, ethos, and pathos—the study identified dominant modes of persuasion. Findings indicate that ethos emerged as the primary rhetorical appeal, reflecting cultural values of trust and authority, while pathos effectively engaged listeners emotionally. Logos, though less frequent, provided essential logical grounding. The study highlights the centrality of ethos in Arab discursive culture and contributes to the growing body of research on digital rhetoric in Arabic media, addressing a notable gap in podcast scholarship. Limitations include reliance on a single episode and the absence of quantitative data, pointing to future research that compares rhetorical strategies across multiple podcasts, genres, and cultural contexts.
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Competing interests: The author declares that there are no competing interests.
Data availability: The data that support the findings of this study are available at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ0auP7dbcY, and the written text is available from the author upon reasonable request.
Ethical approval: Ethical approval was not required for this research as it did not involve human or animal subjects.
Informed consent: Not applicable, as no human participants were involved in the research.
Author contributions: The author carried out all aspects of the research, including conceptualization, data collection, analysis, and writing of the manuscript.
