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A Sociological Analysis of Scopophilia, Individual Empowerment, and Surveillance Culture: a Case Study on Instagram Usage

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A Sociological Analysis of Scopophilia, Individual Empowerment, and Surveillance Culture: a Case Study on Instagram Usage A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF SCOPOPHILIA, INDIVIDUAL EMPOWERMENT, AND SURVEİLLANCE CULTURE: A CASE STUDY ON INSTAGRAM USAGE A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY HASAN ÇERÇİOĞLU IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY DECEMBER 2019 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Yaşar Kondakçı Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. Prof. Dr. Ayşe Saktanber Head of Department 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. Assist. Prof. Dr. Çağatay Topal Supervisor Examining Committee Members Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ayşe İdil Aybars (METU, SOC) Assist. Prof. Dr. Çağatay Topal (METU, SOC) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aysu Kes Erkul (Hacettepe Uni., SBKY) PLAGIARISM 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 : Hasan Çerçioğlu Signature : iii ABSTRACT A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF SCOPOPHILIA, INDIVIDUAL EMPOWERMENT, AND SURVEILLANCE CULTURE: A CASE STUDY ON INSTAGRAM USAGE Çerçioğlu, Hasan M.S., Department of Sociology Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Çağatay Topal December 2019, 200 pages This piece of work had the purpose of investigating the relationships between the phenomena of Scopophilia, individual empowerment and Surveillance Culture, all in the context of Turkey and on the basis of Instagram use while examining the reflection of these towards the daily lives of individuals. Scopophilia was borrowed from the conceptual toolkit of Sigmund Freud while the term Surveillance Culture was used in the way as it was coined by David Lyon. Individual empowerment processes were categorized according to the reviewed/accessed literature which consisted of; empowerment on identity construction, psychological, social, political, economic and finally informational/educational empowerment. For the aforementioned purpose, 12 in-depth interviews were conducted with active Instagram users who were selected by pre-determined sampling criteria. The statements of the participants were analyzed on the MaxQDA program with an open coding process. The findings were thematized with respect to the research questions. It was found that all of the Instagram users harbored Scopophilic tendencies which initially effected their Instagram usage patterns and then helped them to attain certain empowerment processes through these patterns. While it was also found that Scopophilia and Instagram usage were supporting and reproducing Surveillance Culture, a culture where basicly everyone seemingly had obtained the power to gaze everyone, it was observed that the balance of power and authority was in favor of the state and governmental structures against the individual and that Instagram proved to be insufficient in terms of having an effect on changing this situation. Instagram was found to have the capacity to provide various benefits in the users’ microverse and daily lives, but it iv was unable to generate the same benefits and the political power in the macro sense, as the state remains as the most powerful player in that arena. Keywords: Scopophilia, Instagram, Individual Empowerment, Surveillance Culture, Social Media v ÖZ SKOPOFİLİ, BİREYSEL GÜÇLENDİRME VE GÖZETİM KÜLTÜRÜNÜN SOSYOLOJİK BİR ANALİZİ: INSTAGRAM KULLANIMI ÜZERİNE BİR ÖRNEK OLAY İNCELEMESİ Çerçioğlu, Hasan Yüksek Lisans, Sosyoloji Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Çağatay Topal Aralık 2019, 200 sayfa Bu çalışmanın amacı, Türkiye bağlamında ve Instagram kullanımı üzerinden olmak üzere Skopofili, bireysel güçlendirme ve Gözetim Kültürü fenomenlerinin varlığı, bunların arasındaki ilişkiler ile birlikte bireylerin gündelik hayatlarına olan yansımalarının incelenmesidir. Skopofili, Sigmund Freud’un kavramsal alet çantasından ödünç alınırken Gözetim Kültürü terimi ise David Lyon’un kullandığı şekilde ele alınmış ve kullanılmıştır. Bireysel güçlendirme süreçleri, taranan/erişilen literatüre dayalı olarak kategorize edilmiş olup; kimlik inşasına yönelik güçlendirme, psikolojik, sosyal, siyasi, ekonomik, ve son olarak enformasyonel/eğitimsel güçlendirme kavramlarını içermektedir. Yukarıda belirtilen amaç kapsamında önceden belirlenmiş örneklem kriterlerini karşılayan aktif Instagram kullanımına sahip kişiler seçilerek 12 derinlemesine görüşme yapılmıştır. Katılımcıların ifadeleri, açık kodlama aracılığı ile MaxQDA programında analiz edilmiştir. Bulgular, araştırma soruları çerçevesinde temalaştırılmıştır. Instagram kullanıcılarının tamamının, öncelikle Instagram kullanım örüntülerini, daha sonra ise onların belirli güçlendirme süreçlerine sahip olmalarına yardımcı olacak şekilde Skopofilik eğilimlere/duygulara/itkilere sahip oldukları bulunmuştur. Her ne kadar Skopofilinin ve Instagram kullanımımın Gözetim Kültürünü – temel olarak herkesin herkesi gözetleyebilme gücüne sahip olduğu kültürel bir yapı – desteklediği/beslediği ve yeniden ürettiği tespit edilmişse de, güç ve otorite dengesinin bireyin aleyhine olmak üzere, devletin ve hükümet yapılarının lehine olduğu, Instagramın bu durumu gerçek manada vi değiştirme çerçevesinde yetersiz kaldığı gözlemlenmiştir. Instagram uygulamasının kullanıcıların mikro evrenleri/dünyaları ve gündelik hayatları kapsamında çeşitli faydalar sağlayabileceği, bununla birlikte aynı faydaları ve siyasi gücü makro anlamda sağlayamadığı, zira devletin bu alanda bulunan en güçlü oyuncu olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Skopofili, Instagram, Bireysel Güçlendirme, Gözetim Kültürü, Sosyal Medya vii DEDICATION To My Mother, Father and Wife viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to express his deepest gratitude to his supervisor Assist. Prof. Dr. Çağatay Topal for his guidance, advice, criticism, encouragements, good will, insight and kindness both throughout the research process and in daily life. This work would have been left undone if not for his support and motivation efforts. Furthermore, the author would like to thank Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ayşe İdil Aybars and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aysu Kes Erkul for sparing their time in order to evaluate this text and provide constructive criticism in a kind-hearted manner. The author would also like to thank Merve Arılık for her technical and instructional support. She too was of great help in terms of raising the motivation of the author with her positive attitude and personal assistance. Last but not least, Gülçin Çerçioğlu’s efforts to provide the author the best working environment possible was deemed invaluable and gratefully acknowledged. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM ........................................................................................................................ iii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................ iv ÖZ............................................................................................................................................ vi DEDICATION ...................................................................................................................... viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................... ix TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................................... x LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................ xiii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 1 1.1. The purpose of the study .......................................................................................... 7 1.2. The significancy of the study ................................................................................... 9 1.3. The outline of the thesis ......................................................................................... 11 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ..................................................................................... 14 2.1. The “sight” as one of our senses............................................................................. 14 2.2. The “gaze”, certain Feminist approaches in terms of the gaze, their constructive/supplementary critique and the willing exposure on social media ................ 17 2.3. Scopophilia a.k.a the love of looking and the love of being looked at .................. 23 2.4. The traditional and contemporary surveillance studies, and social media surveillance ......................................................................................................................... 27 2.5. Surveillance Culture .............................................................................................. 34 2.6. Empowerment ....................................................................................................... 40 2.6.1. The definition of empowerment ..................................................................... 40 2.6.2. Types of empowerment .................................................................................. 42 2.6.3. Empowerment
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