Aysın Ece Acar Individual to Societal Figures Construction of Celebrity
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INDIVIDUAL TO SOCIETAL FIGURES: CONSTRUCTION OF CELEBRITY IDENTITY IN TURKISH MEDIA CONSTRUCTION OF CELEBRITY IDENTITY IN A Master’s Thesis INDIVIDUAL TO SOCIETAL FIGURES: SOCIETAL TO INDIVIDUAL by AYSIN ECE ACAR TURKISH MEDIA Department of Communication and Design Bilkent University 2020 İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University Ankara August 2020 To mom… INDIVIDUAL TO SOCIETAL FIGURES: CONSTRUCTION OF CELEBRITY IDENTITY IN TURKISH MEDIA The Graduate School of Economics and Social Sciences of İoğı AYSIN ECE ACAR In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements fof the Degree of MASTER OFARTS IN MEDIA AND VISUAL STUDIES THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION AND DESIGN İİ ANKARA August 2020 ABSTRACT INDIVIDUAL TO SOCIETAL FIGURES: CONSTRUCTION OF CELEBRITY IDENTITY IN TURKEY Acar, Aysın Ece M.A., in Media and Visual Studies Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Colleen Bevin Kennedy-Karpat August 2020 Celebrated individuals are everywhere in the consumerist societies in which technology is developing rapidly, and their impact as social phenomenona on the societies, media, and consuming habits is significant. Although celebrities as individuals and celebrity culture have been the topic of media and cultural studies since the late 90s and there is a rich and growing body of literature in the field, there is almost no previous study tackling the issue in Turkey. This thesis investigates the notion of celebrity in Turkey and how the celebrity system functions, by examining three strong cases: Seda Sayan, Cem Yılmaz, and Acun Ilıcalı, and their individual identity construction processes. By adopting foundational theories with respect to the cultural specificities and differences, and examining the recurring patterns in three different cases, it aims to reveal how Turkish media situates celebrities within the broader framework of culture. Keywords: Acun Ilıcalı, Celebrity Studies, Cem Yılmaz, Seda Sayan, Turkish Celebrities !iii ÖZET BİREYLERDEN TOPLUMSAL FİGÜRLERE: TÜRKİYE’DE ÜNLÜ KİMLİĞİ İNŞASI Acar, Aysın Ece Yüksek Lisans, Medya ve Görsel Çalışmalar Danışman: Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Colleen Bevin Kennedy-Karpat Ağustos 2020 Teknolojinin, ve dolayısıyla medyanın hızla geliştiği ve değiştiği tüketim toplumlarında ünlü bireyleri etrafımıza baktığımızda her yerde görebilmemiz mümkün. Sosyal ve kültürel fenomenler olarak ünlülerin toplum, medya ve tüketim alışkanlıkları üzerindeki önemli etkisi, 90’lı yıllardan itibaren medya ve kültürel araştırmaların konusu olmuştur. Her ne kadar zengin ve gün geçtikçe büyüyen bir literatüre sahip olsa da, Türkiye’de bu alanda yapılmış bir çalışma yoktur. Bu tez, Türkiye’de ünlülük kavramını ve ünlülük sistemin nasıl işlediğini, farklı sektörler ve yollar üzerinden kariyerlerini yürüten üç güçlü karakterin bireysel kimlik oluşturma süreçlerini inceleyerek araştırmaktadır. Tezin konusu için seçilen isimler, Seda Sayan, Cem Yılmaz ve Acun Ilıcalı, kendi alanlarında Türkiye’de ilk akla gelen isimler olmaları sebebiyle, sistemin nasıl işlediğini örneklendirmek için seçilmiştir. Çalışma, alanda ortaya atılmış temel teorileri, kültürel farklılık ve özgünlükleri göz önünde bulundurarak benimseyip, ünlü sisteminin yanı sıra, Türk medyasının nasıl işlediğini de incelemektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Acun Ilıcalı, Cem Yılmaz, Seda Sayan, Şöhret Kültürü, Türk Medyası !iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Asst. Prof. Dr. Colleen Bevin Kennedy-Karpat for her priceless guidance, positivity and support that always made me feel safe throughout this process and my entire university life both in under- graduate and graduate studies. This thesis could not be done without her great patience. She is a wonderful person, a great academic who inspired me for years and it was a great opportunity for me to work with her. I also want to thank Assist.Prof. Andreas Treske for his influential lectures, for always guiding me the path that will be the best for me, for helping me to know myself and my desires, and for contributing to me about film, culture, and technology, as well as for the precious time I spent as his assistant, in short, for everything he has done throughout my 6-year campus life. I’d like to thank Wickham Catesby Flannagan for the time I spent as his assistant, which had been a valuable experience and for all his support and encouragement. I’d also like to thank all Bilkent University COMD faculty and staff, in particular, Funda Şenova Tunalı, Boran Aksoy, Melih Aydınat and Sabire Özyalçın for every single moment I get the chance to spend with them and for all their support and encouragement. !v My deepest gratitude goes out to my beautiful mom, Sibel Negüzel and my great sister, Alara Acar for encouraging and trusting me all the times. I thank my cat, Ökkeş without whom I would be left alone, and to my friends Alpkan, Aycan, Beliz, Gökay, Orhun and Yeşeren, for their true friendship and encouragement. Last but not least, I would like to thank Sinan Dalkılıç for everything he has been through in this journey. His great support, tolerance, patience and existence were my main motivations that kept me going. !vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................ iii ÖZET .................................................................................................................. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS................................................................................... v TABLE OF CONTENTS..................................................................................... vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................ 6 2.1 An Introduction to Celebrity Discourse ........................................... 10 2.2 Celebrity as a Commodity ................................................................ 13 2.3. Celebrity as an Industry .................................................................. 16 2.4 Audience/ Fan / Consumer ............................................................... 19 2.5 Publicity, Tabloid and Gossip in Celebrity Culture .......................... 22 2.6 Cultural Intermediaries: PR Specialists, Managers, and Assistant ... 24 2.7 Reality Television, Ordinariness, and the Illusion of Intimacy ........ 27 CHAPTER 3: SULTAN OF THE MORNINGS: SEDA SAYAN AND DAYTIME TV TALK SHOWS IN TURKEY ............................... 30 3.1 Early Career....................................................................................... 31 3.2 Seda Sayan as a Television Personality ............................................. 33 3.3 Seda Sayan as a Talk Show Host ....................................................... 38 CHAPTER 4: COMEDIC SUPREMACY OF CEM YILMAZ .......................... 47 4.1 Early Career and Turkish Comedy ...................................................... 48 4.2 Stand-up Career .................................................................................. 52 4.3 Cem Yılmaz as a Multimedia Personality and His Competitors ........ 58 4.4 Film Career and His Signature Practices ............................................ 61 CHAPTER 5: MEDIA EMPEROR ACUN ILICALI AND REALITY TELEVISION IN TURKEY ..................................................................... 71 5.1 The Man Behind the Brand and Early Career..................................... 72 5.2 Turkish Reality TV and His Competitors ........................................... 75 5.3 What Makes Him Different................................................................. 78 vii 5.4 Tabloid Personality .............................................................................. 92 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION................................................................................ 99 6.1 Limitations of Study ............................................................................. 107 6.2 Suggestions for Further Studies............................................................ 108 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... 109 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................. 118 viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Celebrity is a phenomenon which has a long history and been transforming simultaneously with the developments in technology, media, and society. As social and cultural phenomena, celebrities have been subject of many researches, along with reciprocally influence our lives and consuming habits. Considering the history of the notion of celebrity in Turkey, its origins go back to the golden years of film production, just like in other countries. The cinema in Turkey, which mostly meant European and American films until the 1950s, has changed its status “when an indigenous film industry funded by private capital and enterprise began to take shape on Yesilçam Street in Beyoğlu, Istanbul” (Kaya Mutlu, 2010, p. 417). Cinema, which until then had been accepted as an elitist activity for the upper- middle and upper classes living only in big cities, became a popular entertainment with the increasing number of production companies in Yeşilçam Street and the domestic films produced there. Yeşilçam was considered as Turkey’s “‘little Hollywood’ with its own genres and star system, enjoyed its heyday between 1965 and 1975, with a yearly production of 200 to 300 films” (Kaya Mutlu, 2010, p. 417). It was a star-driven cinema and stars of the