an autobiographical entry on your relationship with the media. (what and why you consume- what you like and dislike in the media etc.)

As a child born in 1989 I should reveal that I grew up with the great effect of media. My mother used to watch soap operas and my father was addicted to news which he used to watch every night. We were under the influence of media as a family which used to have dinner in front of the television. As a child I was glad to have the right of waching TV as much as I want where my friends weren’t allowed to do so. Later on I’ve realized the negative effects of media on our family life, we were sitting apart in the seperate rooms and we weren’t sharing much as we were doing before. We lost our special family rituels and as the channel owners became more  interested in ratings then having a qualified broadcasting there was no use of watching the dull programs. Having a talk with your family became more attractice day by day. Now when I check my daily plan I realize that I don’t spend any of my virtious time with watching. For communication with the outer world I use the internet and the newspapers that are biased (unfortunately non are totally). Media takes role in my life less then before and nor I use it more effectively for my benefits and for gathering the information I need.

Compare different Turkish media outlets (newpapers, television stations, magazines, radio stations)– does the owner have an influence on the content? (who is the owner- is the ideology of the owner reflected in the content?)

Unbiased media is the one which people are willing to find, but which is hard to find. It is unfortunately impossible in today’s world to have a media outlet, which does not reflect the ideas of its owner. Turkish media has lots of examples of this bias, since there are lots of privatized media foundations. There is only one channel, which is regulated by the government. TRT is the one in which we don’t seem lots of propagandas. However, it also is avoiding giving any ‘threatening’ information about the leading political party. So, even the most ‘diluted’ TV Channel doesn’t inform citizens accurately, it is hard to learn the reality from the media. We as citizens prefer the unbiased news and information to be able to have and create our own ideas without any prejudices. Since my childhood I’ve always heard about the discussions about the effects of the leading party and the politic views. It seemed insignificant to me a few years ago but now I find it very repugnant. As a developing country Turkey needs objective media establishments to help the illiterate society to have an idea about the reality and what’s going on in the country. Media should educate people and open the curtain of illiteracy that blinds them instead of giving the strained truth.

Tabloidization of News Media

In today’s world, we always leave the TV turned on, and we are always able to find an entertainment on it, whatever the program is, to get our attention. When the televisions first came to Turkey, there was only one channel, which was TRT, and no competition. With the entering of other TV channels into the media competition, we became able to choose what we wanted to watch. To become most watchable channel, they started to ‘make up’ some false news. This made the news to lose their function of informing and teaching people, and “to lose its content and being tabloidized”. This ‘phenomenon’ has to be searched.

The competition of TV Channels

The aim of the existence of TV , from the time it invented, is to teach something to people, to illuminate them. In the past, when the TV first came to the houses in Turkey, there was only one TV Channel called TRT, which did not give people any chance to decide what they were watching. However, today we have lots of different channels. For example, there is Digiturk, which has an advertisement for its own like “Digiturk; the TV, which shows you what you want to see at that moment”. There are maybe different  types of thousands channels like documantary, entertainment, news, music, movie channels etc. So people are free to choose, but due to the competition between these channels, the quality of all of them is decreasing day by day. Although there are lots of different opportunities to watch, nearly none of them is worth to watch.

To be with a TV or not to be with a TV?

My grandfather once told me the day he bought a television and brought it to home. I really got excited, while I was listening to him. He said that he was one of the first ones who bought it and before that they were sitting in the living room and listening to music on the radio. My grandmother added that while they were listening to the music, they were able to talk to eachother and to see their faces. However, with the existence of television, they just started to ignore the others excepts the ones who are on the television. They actually start to ignore themselves do, as we are doing now. At home, my family have always something to watch on the TV. It doesn’t matter whether it is a soap opera or a documentary, I know that they are going to prefer to watch it. This is why I sometimes go in front of the TV and tell the thing, which I want to share with them, to break their connection with the TV and to make them to listen to me.

Reality TV

In Turkey, for a certain period, we used to have reality programs on TV. Lots of people really watch them. Unfortunately, I was one of them. I didn’t think about the ‘thing’, that pushed me to watch them, until now. I think that I wanted to isolate myself from the fasads, from the masks, from the pretendeces. So, with the will of tasting some reality, these types of TV programs were my places to escape. I really started to meet with these people, who were locked in a house to compete with the others. I started to find our similarities, and started to identify myself with them, since the real life was not real enough and we were just pretending. Also I was sick of seeing the make-ups instead of seeing people in their pajamas naturally.

Enormous Radio

The need of being addicted to something effects sometimes the lives of the people in a bad way. In the daily world, all of us are under the control of media. The first thing we do when we come to home is to turn on the TV or radio. It is not just to learn some informations about the important events occurring all around the world, it is also because of our curiosity about the lives of others. Irene uses the radio to get some information about their neighbours, when she finds out that radio is broadcasting the voices of her neighbours. She gets curious and becoms addicted to it, because she doesn’t not hear just their voices, she hears “demonstrations of indigestion, carnal love, abysmal vanity, faith, and despair”. After the repairman comes and fixes the radio, she and her husband starts to argue. When they lost the connection between the media, the thing they are addicted to, they also start to live like the others. When we get rid of the radio, we left with the ‘reality’.

Family G.

Daddy is the ‘hunter’, mummy is the ‘gatherer’. Throughout the human history, the roles of the members of the family don’t change very rapidly. It still has some similarities and in our family structures, even today, the father has the role of doing the hard works to be able to nurture his children, and the mother is the one who ‘gather the life’ of her children. While she is carrying her baby, she is preparing a future for her baby. This might be considered as that the father is the authority of the family, since he is the one to connect the family to the outside world. In my family, I can’t really say that my father is the only and the exact authority, although he is a very strong character, because he doesn’t give the decisions about all of us without asking to or taking advices from my mother. Also when they are planning to do something for the family, like a trip or something else, they are coming to me and my brother and telling about their plan. Although me and my brother, we both don’t seem like we have the right for objection, we, who are the fruits of the marriage and love, are the ones, whom they are giving their decisions according to.

Family&Marriage – What are we fighting for?

What is the role of the family in society? How important is the role that family has in society in your opinion? 

 After reading the article by Ralph Wedgwood, I started to think in a different way about the institution of marriage. I had the idea that people, who want to live together until the end of their lives, choose the way to marry. Maybe due to my nation, I was seeing marriage as an obligation to live together. In our society, in Turkey, to live together without marriage is not an acceptable process. In our country, people do not choose to marry with the people they love, to share the properties. It is not a mutual living agreement, it is not a document to show to society that “we are dividing everything into two, it is why we married”. In Turkey, it is just to get the permission of society to live together. This is why I saw the obligatory side of the marriage different than the writer. However, in an other way, I agree with him. If we consider other countries, where to live together without marriage is acceptable, it is true to say that people are choosing marriage not because it is an obligation, they are choosing it for the benefits of the legal side of it. Since it is to show that our marriage is a long-term marriage, it makes their marriage to gain good reputation from the society.

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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN KITTY AND HER FATHER

The problem in the relationship between Kitty and her father is not just the teenage period Kitty living in. I think that her father’s behaviors cause transforming of the normal teenage conflicts into unadjustable problems. Five-years-old girl enjoys playing “the hairs of the noses”, but there is no possibility that fifteen-years-old teenage loves playing it. He doesn’t accept that she is a teenage. Maybe we can say that Kitty’s father doesn’t want her to grow up, always wants to control her. He doesn’t accept her choices, he also doesn’t like her ability to make her own decisions. This is why they can’t communicate. Their frequencies are different.