Production and Labor Process of the Contemporary Turkish Private Television Series
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PRODUCTION AND LABOR PROCESS OF THE CONTEMPORARY TURKISH PRIVATE TELEVISION SERIES A THESIS SUBMITED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY FIRAT KONUŞLU IN PARTIAL FULLFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN THE PROGRAM OF MEDIA AND CULTURAL STUDIES SEPTEMBER 2012 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences ____________________ Prof.Dr. Meliha Altunışık Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. ____________________ Prof. Dr. Raşit Kaya Head of Program This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. ____________________ Instr. Dr. Barış Çakmur Supervisor Examining Committee Members Prof. Dr. Gamze Yücesan-Özdemir (Ankara Uni, JRN) Instr. Dr. Barış Çakmur (METU, PADM) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Necmi Erdoğan (METU, PADM) I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last Name: Signature: iii ABSTRACT PRODUCTION AND LABOR PROCESS OF THE CONTEMPORARY TURKISH PRIVATE TELEVISION SERIES Konuşlu, Fırat M.Sc., Media and Cultural Studies Master Program Supervisor: Instr. Dr. Barış Çakmur September 2012, 168 pages This thesis focuses on one of the most appreciated products of the Turkish Television, the TV Series' production and labor process. Starting from the fact that the production side of this highly attention gathering media product hasn't received too much academic concern, by analyzing the workers of the sector, this point is tried to be illuminated. This thesis that analyzes TV series' working conditions in the perspective of “precarious employment” departing from this framework, argues the workers of the industry are fragmented into two groups, “creative” and “technical” workers. In this context it indicates the creative workers not only as not being affected from the precarious employment conditions too much but also as the executor of the technical workers' experience of precariousness in the production level. Keywords: TV Series, precarious employment, fragmentation of the working class iv ÖZ TÜRKİYE ÖZEL TELEVİZYON DİZİLERİNİN ÜRETİM VE EMEK SÜRECİ Konuşlu, Fırat Master., Medya ve Kültürel Çalışmalar Master Programı Danışman: Öğr. Gr. Dr. Barış Çakmur Eylül 2012, 168 Sayfa Bu tez Türkiye özel televizyonlarının en ilgi gören ürünlerinden olan televizyon dizilerinin üretim ve emek sürecine odaklanmaktadır. Oldukça dikkat çeken bu medya ürünün üretiminin çok fazla akademik ilgi görmemiş olması noktasından hareketle, bu sektörün çalışanları analiz edilerek bu nokta aydınlatılmaya çalışılmıştır. Dizilerdeki çalışma koşullarını güvencesiz çalışma perspektifinden analiz eden bu tez bu temel çerçeveden hareketle dizi üretiminde çalışan ücretli emekçilerin “yaratıcı” ve “teknik” işçi olmak üzere iki farklı teknik gruba bölündüğünü ileri sürmektedir. Bu bağlamda, yaratıcı işçilerin güvencesiz çalışma şartlarından pek etkilenmemenin ötesinde teknik işçilerin deneyimliyor olduğu güvencesizliğin üretim noktasındaki yürütücüsü olduğunu öne sürmektedir. Keywords: Televizyon dizileri, güvencesiz çalışma, işçi sınıfının bölünmesi v LIST AND ABBREVIATIONS OF THE INTERVIWEES ACT: Actor, aged 47, male (12.04.2012 in Ulus, Ankara) BO: Boom Operator, aged 24, male, (01.02.2012 in Taksim, İstanbul) CA: Camera Assistant, aged 25, male (30.01.2012 in Beşiktaş, İstanbul) CPR: Co-Producer, aged 30, male, (09.06.2012, Kadıköy, Istanbul) DA: Director Assistant, aged 27, male (06.11.2011, Kızılay, Ankara) DOP/LC: Director of Photograph/Lighting Chef, aged 45, male (16.03.2011, Kızılay, Ankara) DR/CPR: Director/Co-Producer, aged 30, male (first interview 10.02.2012 in Üsküdar, Istanbul, second interview 09.06.2012) EDA: Editing Assistant, aged 27, male (11.05.2012, in Balgat, Ankara) FGR-1: Figurant-1, aged 26, male (04.02.2011 in Taksim, İstanbul) FGR-2: Figurant-2, aged 58, male (06.02.2011 in Taksim, İstanbul) FGR-3: Figurant-3 aged 32, male (12.01.2011 in Mamak, Ankara) FGR-4: Figurant-4, aged 25, male (15.02.2011 in Ulus, Ankara) MA: Make-Up Assistant, aged 35, female (23.06.2012, Balgat, Ankara) PR: Producer; aged 52, female (03.02.2012, Tarabya, İstanbul) PRA: Production Assistant, aged 28, female (12.01.2011 in Mamak, Ankara) SCW-1: Scriptwriter-1, aged 44, female (30.01.2012, Beyoğlu, İstanbul) SCW-2: Scriptwriter-2, aged 43 female (30.01.2012, Beyoğlu, İstanbul) ST: Sound Technician, aged 24, male (01.02.2012 in Taksim, İstanbul) STU: Student, aged 23, male (01.10.2011 in Kadıköy, İstanbul) YL-1: Yeşilçam Laborer-1, aged 52, male (01.02.2012 in Taksim, İstanbul) YL-2: Yeşilçam Laborer -2, aged 45, male (01.02.2012 in Taksim, İstanbul) YL-3: Yeşilçam Laborer-3 aged 42, male (01.02.2012 in Taksim, İstanbul) TM: Tea-Maker, aged 27, male (15.02.2011 in Ulus, Ankara) vi TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM.............................................................................................................iii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................iv ÖZ.................................................................................................................................v LIST AND ABBREVIATIONS OF THE INTERVIWEES.........................................vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ...........................................................................................vii CHAPTER 1.INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................1 2.THE THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF THE ANALYSIS OF PRIVATE TURKISH TELEVISION SERIES’ PRODUCTION AND LABOR PROCESS....................................................7 2.1 An Attempt To Place Cultural Industries’ Production and Labor Process into the theory of Political Economy.................................................................................7 2.2 Flexible Accumulation and Production Systems...............................16 2.3 Conceptualizing Precarious Employment.........................................26 2.4 A Framework To Understand Worker Consciousness.....................30 2.5 A Summary: The Precarious Employment and the Subject in the Flexible Production Systems of Cultural Industries................40 3. THE INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURE OF THE CONTEMPORARY TURKISH PRIVATE TELEVISION SERIES............................................................................44 3.1 Rating Dominance and Strategies of TV Series Programming......................................................................................44 3.2 Flexible Organization of The Production Process..............................49 4. PRECARIOUS EMPLOYMENT IN THE TURKISH TELEVISION SERIES PRODUCTION.....................................59 vii 4.1 The Methodology for the Collection of the Data...............................60 4.2 Finding and organizing the labor force: Project Based Networking..................................................................64 4.3 The Labor Market: Finding the Job, Surviving and Promoting in the Industry...................................................................80 4.4 TV Series Work in the Context of Precarious Employment.....................................................................98 4.4.1 Job Continuity............................................................................98 4.4.2 Wages........................................................................................108 4.4.3 Working Conditions..................................................................117 4.4.4 Social Security..........................................................................128 5. COLLECTIVE BELONGINGNESS AND SUBJECTIVITIES OF THE TURKISH TELEVISION SERIES’ WORKERS..........................................................134 5.1 Fragmentation of the Working Class................................................134 5.2 The Selves of The Workers...............................................................139 5.3 Politics of Precariousness.................................................................146 6. CONCLUSION.......................................................................................154 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………….160 APPENDIX: TEZ FOTOKOPİ İZİN FORMU……………………………………168 viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TV Series has become one of the most appreciated cultural products in Turkey’s television content in recent years.TV series, especially in the private televisions, and with an increasing amount also in the public channels take important parts in their broadcasting schedules. Furthermore, prime-time periods of TV channels, which is considered as the most watched time period and related to it the most profitable one, are occupied mostly by TV Series. Besides being a leisure time activity for the audience, it is an business entity, from which the TV channels gain important amounts of advertisement revenue. According to the last sectoral analysis the TV series' advertisement revenue has said to be reached 1 billion TL, that equals 25 % of the all advertisement revenues made in media. On the other hand, TV series has also become an important exportation product. TV producers, besides the Turkish televisions gain profits from a TV series' sell