Political and Social-Cultural Narratives in Turkish TV Shows: Between Involuntary Instrument of Soft Power and Silent Weapon for Waging Cultural War? Cover Image

Politički i društvenokulturni narativi u turskim serijama: između nenamjernog instrumenta meke moći i tihog oružja za vođenje kulturnog rata?
Political and Social-Cultural Narratives in Turkish TV Shows: Between Involuntary Instrument of Soft Power and Silent Weapon for Waging Cultural War?

Author(s): Borna Zgurić
Subject(s): Politics, Media studies, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Film / Cinema / Cinematography
Published by: Hrvatsko politološko društvo
Keywords: Turkish TV series; narrative analysis; political narratives; social-cultural narratives; propaganda; soft power;

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to identify the political, cultural and social narratives of Turkish series that have a propaganda role. The narrative analysis deals with two Turkish series of recent date and different genres – Daydreamer and 50 m2 . The narrative analysis is complemented by a comparative approach, i.e. the most different systems design. Despite both superficially depicting Western and secular values, the deeper layer of the analyzed TV shows reveals almost identical political, cultural, and social narratives marked by the ruling party’s political propaganda and the reproduction of conservative culture in Turkey. Although the paper confirms the propaganda content of the analyzed series, primarily towards Turkish viewers, it is concluded that it is necessary to expand the research to a larger number of Turkish TV shows. Equally, while the narrative analysis tells us what messages these series send, in order to be able to investigate the reception of their messages by Turkish viewers, further research is needed, applying different methodological procedures.

  • Issue Year: 2021
  • Issue No: 18
  • Page Range: 0-21
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: Croatian