Turks resorting to TV as an anti-depressant

The medium is increasingly the message for Turks as television simultaneously reflects and attempts to inculcate conservatism in the country, according to sociologist Tayfun Acar. Above all, TV has become a method of escape from the quotidian for many Turks, he says Faced with difficult, monotonous lives, television represents the bread and circuses that allow ordinary Turks to escape their daily drudgery, according to a Turkish sociologist.

“In the face of colorless, difficult lives people still see TV series as the only way to have the force survive the next day by taking refuge for a couple of hours in dreams, in a sort of ecstatic way. TV series are like an anti-depressant,” Tayfun Acar recently told the Hürriyet Daily News.

The fact that a women’s talk show hosted the man who murdered his wives has become highly controversial. It seems women’s programs in Turkey don’t care about giving some messages to society, such as on issues like domestic violence.

In the 1990s when private TV channels started to appear, there were such programs involving “cultural engineering.”

But with the rating system gaining importance and as individual expectations started to gain priority, the content became focused on expectations. No doubt this worries the elites. But television is still at the heart of mass culture in Turkey. Therefore, what is important is the concern about “how can I keep eyes on the screen?” Betrayals, divorces, the fact that the man who murdered his wives speaks on TV, all these are things we hear in our neighborhood. So when you bring them to the screen, you attract attention.

So TV content reflects the Turkish people?

Let’s say not on a one-to-one basis but...