Abstract
This article examines the ways in which Turkish Radio and Television Institution (TRT), as the public service broadcaster of Turkey, has been mobilized by the Justice and Development Party (JDP) to contribute to the dissemination of a neo-Ottomanist discourse in the neighboring geographies. Our focus is on two expansions of TRT, namely TRT Avaz and TRT El Arabia, that aim at reaching markets outside the national borders of Turkey. Our interest here lies in three intersecting phenomena. One is the notion of neo-Ottomanism and its deployment as a cultural policy geared towards a market of transnational viewers. The other is the digitalization of broadcasting and the recent transformations in the global media spheres that allow for alternate cosmopolitan media cultures. Finally, we are concerned with the transformation of TRT’s role, from initially being a ‘nationalizing’ and ‘internationalizing’ institution to later being transformed into a ‘transnational’ apparatus of the JDP government. We argue that the transnationalisation of TRT has become possible under the historical coincidence of the revival of neo-Ottomanism and the transformations in the global media environment. We conclude by suggesting that in line with JDP government’s neo-Ottomanist discourse, TRT now works towards fostering a transnational communality around the notions of Ottoman culture and Ottoman morals among Arab speaking and Islamic populations.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Karanfil, Y. Gökçen and Eğilmez, D. Burcu
(2017)
"Politics, Culture and Media: Neo-Ottomanism as a Transnational Cultural Policy on TRT El Arabia and TRT Avaz,"
Markets, Globalization & Development Review:
Vol. 2:
No.
2, Article 4.
DOI: 10.23860/MGDR-2017-02-02-04
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/mgdr/vol2/iss2/4
Included in
Broadcast and Video Studies Commons, International and Intercultural Communication Commons, International Relations Commons, Mass Communication Commons, Other Political Science Commons
Author Bio
Gökçen Karanfil is an Associate Professor at the Department of Media and Communication in Izmir University of Economics. He received his PhD in Cultural Studies from the Australian National University. His research interests range across media sociology, global media studies, communication theory and migration studies.
Burcu Eğilmez received her PhD in Political Science from the Middle East Technical University. She studied at Northwestern University as a visiting scholar and at Leiden University as an exchange student during her doctoral research. Her academic research focuses on Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies, political sociology and comparative politics.