VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND DIPLOMACY PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT Sevda Melek Sancar WOMAN REPRESENTATIONS IN TURKISH TV SERIALS Final Master Thesis Journalism and Media Industries Study Program, state code 621P50002 Degree in Journalism Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Kristina Juraitė Defended: ___________________ (Dean of the Faculty) Kaunas, 2017 VYTAUTO DIDŽIOJO UNIVERSITETAS POLITIKOS MOKSLŲ IR DIPLOMATIJOS FAKULTETAS VIEŠOSIOS KOMUNIKACIJOS KATEDRA Sevda Melek Sancar MOTERŲ REPREZENTACIJOS TURKIJOS TV SERIALUOS Magistro baigiamasis darbas Žurnalistikos ir i in ustri stu i programa, valstybinis kodas 621P50002 Žurnalistikos stu i kryptis Vadovas (-ė) Prof. Dr. Kristina Juraitė _________ __________ (Parašas) (Data) Apginta _______________________ _______ ________ (Fakult to/stu i instituto dekanas/direktorius (Parašas) (Data) Kaunas, 2017 CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ................................................................................................2 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .............................................................................................................4 SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................................5 SANTRAUKA ....................................................................................................................................6 INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................................7 1. THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO MEDIA AND CULTURE ...............................................11 1.1. Definition of Media and Culture ....................................................................................11 1.2. Interaction between Culture and Media .........................................................................12 1.3. Media and Society ......................................................................................................... 14 1.3.1. Impact of Media on Society and Culture................................................................. 15 1.3.2. Culture Industry........................................................................................................ 16 1.3.3. Popular Culture and TV ……………………………………………………….…....17 2. THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO REPRESENTATION ......................................................19 2. 1.The concept of Representation .......................................................................................19 2. 2. Media Representations ..................................................................................................21 2.2.1. TV as Medium of Representation.............................................................................23 2.2.2. Narrative Structures in TV Serials.......................................................................... 26 3. THE ROLE of TV SERIALS ON TURKISH SOCIETY .............................................................29 3.1. Looking at Turkish Society through the TV Serials …………………………………. 30 3.2. Audiences of TV Serials in Turkey…………………………………………………….33 3.3. Wo n R pr s ntation in Turkish TV S rials ………………………………………...36 4. CONTENT ANALYSIS OF THE WOMEN REPRESENTATIONS IN TURKISH TV SERIALS ............................................................................................................................................................39 4. 1. Research Design and Method .......................................................................................39 4. 2. Analysis of the Women Representations in Turkish TV Serials....................................41 4.2.1. Kalbimdeki Deniz ...................................................................................................41 4.2.2. Aşk ve Mavi ............................................................................................................44 4.2.3. Anne ........................................................................................................................47 4.3. Research Findings and Discussion .................................................................................50 CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................................................................. 58 REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................. 60 ANNEXES .....................................................................................................................................70 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES List of tables Table 1. General information about Kalbimdeki Deniz......................................................................40 Table 2. General information about Aşk ve Mavi………………………………………………..…..43 Table 3. General information about Anne ………………………………………………………….46 Table 4. Distribution of the actors and actress within the plot …………………………………….49 Table 5. General appearance of the female characters .………………………….…….……….….55 Table 6. Dressing style of female characters………………………………………..………………55 Table 7. Representation of the violence through the women characters…………………………...56 List of figures Figure 1. Triangle of meaning ……………………………………………………………………..20 Figure 2. Concept of the representations diagram………………………………………………….22 Figure 3. Average daily TV viewing, 2011………………………………………………………...34 Figure 4. Top 5 Program Breakdowns – 2013/2014 Season……………………………………….34 Figure 5. TV viewing frequency according to the program genres between September and December in 2012 …………………………………………………………………………………..35 Figure 6. Genres of the serials which On-Air since Jun, 2014 ………………….……………...….35 Figure 7. Average Breakdown of the TV Series First On-Air Times per Episodes in 6 Leading Broadcasters- 2013-2014-Season …………………………………………………………………..38 Figure 8. Average Breakdown of the TV Series in total On-Air Times per Episodes in 6 Leading Broadcasters- 2013-2014-Season ……………………………………………………………….….38 Figure 9. D niz Öztuna …………………………………………………………………………….42 Figure 10. Hülya Aksal …………………………………………………………………………….42 Figure 11. Fikriy Yıl az ………………………………………………………………………….43 Figure 12. Diyar Sarıkaya ………………………………………………………………………….43 Figure 13. Mavi Gör çki …………………………………………………………………………..45 Figure 14. Refika Gör çki …………………………………………………………………..……..45 Figure 15. Safiy Gör çki …………………………………………………………………...……..46 Figure 16. Hasibe Yilmaz…………………………………………………………………………..46 Figure 17. Zeynep Gün ş…………………………………………………………………….……..48 Figure 18. Şul Akçay……………………………………………………………………….……..48 2 Figure 19. Cahi Gün ş……………………………………………………………………….…..49 Figure 20. Gönül Aslan……………………………………………………………………….……49 Figure 21. Distrbutiton of major role according to gender ………………………………………...50 Figure 22. Distrbutiton of minor role according to gender ………………………………………...51 Figure 23. Distrbutiton of age ………………………………………………………………….......52 Figure 24. Martial status of female characters ………………………………………………..........52 Figure 25. Educational background of female characters ……………………………………....…53 Figure 27. Personal traits of women characters ………………………………………………....…53 Figure 26. Distrbutiton of f al charact rs’ occupation ……………………………………....…55 3 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BC Before the birth of Christ GMMP Global Media Monitoring Project OECD Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development ITU Istanbul Technical University RTUK Radio and Television Supreme Council TRT Turkish Radio and Television TUIK Turkish Statistical Institute TV Television UK United Kingdom USA United States of America 4 SUMMARY Media primarily just aimed at informing to the people, and it has started to increasingly influences and shapes all the social relationships, daily life practices and cultural values by times. Thus the media had gradually become an integral part of p opl ’s liv s since it first used, there is no doubt that television has been the most effective and wide spreading tool in re-shaping the cultural elements and traditional values. TV serials has played a key role transforming the traditional culture into the hegemonic media culture which produced by dominant majority. Because of this reproduced hegemonic culture, the effects of TV on the masses cannot be denied. Turkish society has changed dramatically in the last 100 years and as a main communication tool, place and importance of television was considerable in this period of change. Thanks to effects of TV on society, TV serials have taken a lead in the process of reconstruction of Turkish society and adaptation of the desired changes into society. Such that, especially after the 90s, Turkish p opl ’s lif styl s, social an oral b haviors, attitu s an xp ctations about th s lv s and as well as about people from other social, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds have been shaped by TV serials in an unexpected way. In a sense, TV serials held up a mirror to Turkish society. This thesis examines the representation of woman in Turkish TV serials. It focuses that how women are portrayed on screen and considers how this reflects widespread popular culture and expectations. At the same time, the study aims to explain the determining role of media in construction of the female identity in society and in transformation of existed identities by various codes such as gender roles. 5 SANTRAUKA Žiniasklai a siekia infor uoti ž onė s, ir vis labiau laiko atžvilgiu įtako a ir formuoja socialinius santykius, kas i ninio gyv ni o patirtis ir kultūrin s vertybes. Nuo tada