Television and Popular Culture in Turkey (1968-1991)

Abstract

It was the development of mass media that accelerated the modernization process. The culture spread by mass media, especially television, is called mass culture. Mass culture is the product of the process that gives birth to popular culture. Popular culture and mass culture are the most important concepts used to explain the cultural changes in the world where television, the most powerful mass communication tool, has changed many things. In this study, the relationship between popular culture and television in Turkey is examined. While Turkish society was going through a process of change, the start of television broadcasts meant that the society, which did not even have the opportunity to create popular culture, encountered the mass culture spread by television. In the section of the study titled "The Beginning of Television Broadcasts in Turkey", the relationship between popular culture and television in Turkey was trying to be clarified and the effect of television broadcasts in the context of popular culture-mass culture was examined from 1968 to 1991. While making this analysis, programs and the broadcasting policy of television, which are the most important tools of mass culture in Turkey, as in all parts of the world, were taken into consideration.