Research on Women in Turkish Media

1. Research on Women in Turkish Media Prof. Dr. Aysel Aziz Faculty of Communication,Yeditepe University, İstanbul/Turkey April 26, 2006

2. Introduction: • Research on women in Turkish Media will be reviewed from 1960’s up to our time, 2006. • 1. A brief history of Turkish media. • 2. History of women’s research in decades. • 3. Methods and techniques. • 4. Findings of studies on women in Turkish media.

3. Brief history of Turkish media: • Turkish Republic was founded in 1923. • There were only a few national newspapers and magazines published in İstanbul at that time. These had limited distrubution countrywide. • 1925: The first Turkish news agency (Anadolu Ajansı/Anatolian News Agency/ AA) was founded. • 1927: The first radio stations began broadcasting in Ankara and İstanbul as commercial/private radio stations.

4. I936: Government started to own Radio stations. • 1950-1960: Radio was used for political purposes by the government. • During these years radio broadcasting still had very limited coverage area. • Written media improved gradually. However, still was not satisfactory in number, circulation and the content. • 1961: Radio and television boadcasting became state owned as autonomous public broadcastings service according to the new “1961 Constitution”.

5. 1964: TRT (Turkish Radio and Television Corparation) was founded as a state monopoly organisation. • 1968: First television broadcasting started in Ankara with very limited transmitter power. • 1964 – 1980: TRT’s radio broadcasting improved and covered the whole of Turkey at least 3 channels providing with good quality broadcasting. . • 1984-90: TV broadcasting improved; Colour TV, 2th, 3rd, and 4th television channels and Internatiol TV started and covered the whole of Turkey with at least two TV channels.

6. 1991-1994: Commercial / private TV and radio stations started illegally. • Within three years, the number of illegal stations reached 1500 radios; 300 television stations mostly owned by enterprises who were called “media moguls”. • Program subjects and formats were different from those state owned TRT’s radio and television broadcasting. Turkish audience showed great interest to these new electronic media.

7. 2006: Written media; 12 daily (appr.) national newspapers with approximately 6 millions circulation. 20 weekly / monthly magazines. Also there are regional and local newspapers. • 2006: Electronic media; 3 types of broadcasting 1. Terresterial broadcasting (15 national, 15 regional and 300 local TV channels) 2. Cable TV (about 60 native and foreign channels) 3. Digital radio and TV broadcasting (more then 500 native and foreign broadcasting) • 2006: Film Industry: Native film industry showed great improvements comparing with the previous years.

8. Early research: In the 1960’s • Early research was sociological research aiming to find out audience’s reading and listening habits covering both sexes; males and females. • Related research was carried out in Istanbul and Ankara by the universities alone or in collobaration with some State units and NGO’s. • In this research, there was no emphasis on women and media.

9. In the 1970’s There were some improvements in media and women research in this decade. The factors that provoked and influenced research on women and media were: • Developments in Women’s Rights in the world (e.g. Adoption of Women’s Ten Years by the UN: 1975 - 1985) and their influence in Turkey. Foundation of some NGO’s related with the women’s affairs and starting of some feminist movements in Turkey. (e.g. Women’s Union, Woman’s Federation and some women’s platforms).

10. In 1970’s (con’d) • Schools of Broadcasting and Journalism started in Ankara, then in İstanbul. This gave the opportunity to carry out media research related with women’s affairs both in undergraduate and graduate levels. • Technical developments in electronic media (esp. expansion of radio broadcasting throughout Turkey)

11. First research directly releated with women and media sought to measure the effects of television and radio on women. • Towards the mid-1970’s two empirical research were carried out by the School of Broadcasting and Journalism of Ankara University, aiming to measure educational, social and political effects of television broadcasting on both sexes, with emphasis on women.

12. In the 1980’s • Research on women and media, increased drastically after technical expansion of television broadcasting throughout Turkey. Also, airing time of radio and television broadcasting increased and their content became richer and more colourful. • TRT also started to conduct research on the audience’s listenning and viewing habits and attitutes related to some women’s programs. • Research on woman and media in universities gained ground. • Profile of women in Latin American television serials broadcasted in Turkey, introduced a new scope on research into women in media.

13. In the 1990’s The number of women and media research has remarkably increased. This was due to the following developments: • After the1991 elections in Turkey, the new coalition government (SHP+DYP) formed a Ministry of State responsible for women’s affairs: “Directorate General on the Status and Problems of Women” This supported both the feminists’ and academicians’ activities. • In 1991, commercial radio and television broadcasting started illegally. They had no limitation on the subjects of the programs and profiling of women, esp. on the screen.

14. In the 1990’s (con’d) • 1993: A woman, Prof. Dr. Tansu Çiller, initially became the head of a political party (DYP/True Path Party) and then, Prime Minister of Turkey. Therefore, representation of women in political scene became even more visible in the media. Representation of political women in media increased. • Leading universities, such as İstanbul and Ankara, founded the first Women’s Studies Centers. Also, some universities, opened graduate programs on women’s studies which specifically focus on media and gender problems.

15. 2000 – 2006 Research on women in Turkish media reached its peak. • The number of communication faculties reached 27. Paralell to this, research into the representation of women in media increased. • Academicians and students both undergraduate and graduate levels in these faculties are interested in handling the woman issues related to media; aiming to measure the effects of the media on woman and the content of the messages.

16. 2000 – 2006 • Media covering almost every type of messages related to women started to be researched into. • National and international firms & organisations support these types of research projects. • New media technologies such as video, VCD, DVD and finally the Internet merged to media creating new research subjects related with women. • Number of Women Studies Centers reached 6.

17. Methods and technics • Generally, the methods and technics used in research on Turkish media and women were infleunced by the western countries mainly the USA, the UK, France, Germany, Holland. From the ’60’s up to 2006- especially direct methods and related technics used in the researches, were taken from these countries. • Early research was mostly descriptive, and questionning the relationship between events and variables. These might be called “audience research”.

18. Methods and technics (con’d) • In the 1990’s media research has changed its structure and nature in terms of methods and technics used. • Researching into “Content of the messages” has become popular. • Researchers began tho use the methods and related technics of content analysis and discourse analysis. They became more intrested in the content of the media: What kind of messages media give to the audience and in what frequency?

19. Content /discourse analysis: • “Cultural Indicator Project”: The most effective project on the women’s portrayal in the Turkish media. It is a well-known, on-going project that has been carried out by the Annenberg School of Communication in Pennsilyvaina, USA, since 1976. • Content analysis method (covering both message and physical analysis) and related technics used in Turkey have been about:

20. Research topics using content analysis • Educational and cultural messages for women (in all media). • Portrayal of women in news, news bulletins and news programs (in all media). • Portrayal of women in advertisements (in all media). • Profile of women in films and serials (in cinema &TV). • Violence and harresment against women in news, serials and films. • Women in magazine-type messsages (in all media)

21. Model used Gaye Tuchmann’s 5-scale models were mostly applied in these research, either implicitly or explicitly. 5-scale model representation of women in media • Woman is a sex object; dumb-blonde. • Woman should stay at home as a housewife (wife and mother or good girl/daughter); traditional portrait; • Woman may work outside doing womanly works; while man works at home doing manly works; • Both sexes are equal in every aspect of the life; • Both men and women are individuals; there is no superiority or inferiority between the sexes.

22. Some findings of the women-media research Women as audience /consumer: • Women consume the written media less than electronic media. • Women show more interest in television broadcasting, than newspapers and magazines esp. among the less educated women. • In television viewing, their preferences are focused on esp. native serials as well as imported serial and films. • Live programs for women esp. reality shows, related directly with women’s issues, draw more attention of women audience.

23. Some findings of the women-media research (con’d) Women as audience /consumer • Informative messages on health, nutrition, fashion, child care, cooking etc. are listened, viewed and read by the most adult female audience. • Young females are more affected by the messages related with fashion and life style of models, actrises, singers etc. (role modelling) • Political messages do not have significant influence on the political decision of women voters. • Women are influenced by the advertisements presented by media. However, they are sceptical and hesitant in buying goods and services presented by the media.

24. Research findings related to the content of the messages • Profile of women in media change from one medium to other. • Representation of women in news, news programs are less than men and this does not reflect the women’s place in real life. • Woman generally takes place in magazine programs and shows rather as a model, singer, actress in sexy dresses. • A woman takes place in the news, if she is involved in a scandal, attacked, subjected to violence or harrassment, is a victim of honor killing, involved in a robbery, murder etc.; very rarely, with her sucsess.

25. Research findings related to the content of the messages (con’d) • Women are presented in TV serials either as a sex object, in traditional way of life or working in womanly jobs outside. Representation of women with these stereotypings create misunderstanding about women’s place in social life. • Women in advertisements were mostly sex objects and housewives in the early years of television and in written media. • This has been changing gradually in the last 15 years. • As a result of these types of representation of women in media, women are streotyped as complaining, lacking skills for solving problems, needing help, confused, talking too much, having no idea even in simple matters, and inferior to men.

26. Conclusion • Research into women and media in Turkey, have almost 40 years of history. Depending on the developments in media and feminist activities in the world and in Turkey, the profile of women changed gradually from being a sex object, traditional way of living as a housewife to the modern profile of women.