Abstract Volume 2
Critical Assesment of Vilém Flusser’s Human Communication Theory -
Communication scientist and philosopher Vilém Flusser, named his human communication theory as "communicolog." According to Flusser, human communication is the process in which the information is stored, processed, conveyed and produce new information regularly. Discourse and dialogue play an important role in communication process. Dialogue up to now takes on the functions of authors in society which is information production. Discourse spreads improbable information which is only probable by spreading. In futures telematic society, dialogue which produces regular information will gain importance, information flow will end the old discourse. Accordingly, it won’t be possible to talk about authority in telematic societes, intense usage of technology liberate human. In case of telematic society formation, non-ideologization will come true and creative spaces could be expanded. Flusser presents the development and wide spread usage of technology as the best way for liberating, comforting of human-being and for releasing the human creativity. Flusser degrades human comfort and liberation to the effective usage of technology. But in fact, human reach to the missed liberation and comfort requires solutions to economical, political and societal problems.
This study aims to evaluate and critically assess the communication theory of Vilém Flusser called "communicology."
Function of the Internet Communication Technology in Developing a Public Culture of Alertness for NaturalDisasters -
This study was carried out to suggest how should the public authorities providing services in earthquake-related fields make use of the communication means (web communication) provided by the Internet communication technology, which is fast turning into the most important communication technology in the world, in order to be able to contribute to the development of a public culture of alertness for natural disasters. As a part of this study, relevant literature was scanned and a ‘web site analysis’ was conducted on the important disaster web sites of the public authorities providing earthquake-related services in Istanbul and national level. This study is important in showing what should be done to develop of a culture of alertness for natural disasters in modern disaster management.
If the individuals and institutions of a society can be protected against the damages of natural disasters and are able to live in harmony with nature by overcoming the effects of natural disasters, those facts are indicators proving that the society in question has developed a culture of awareness and alertness for natural disasters. In such a society, the individuals are able to develop attitudes, values, forms of behavior and habits to decrease the damages of an earthquake and to be prepared against the effects of an earthquake in a planned and organized manner. To do this, the individuals should be trained and made aware of protecting themselves against the damages of an earthquake. Training is an important driving force in teaching new cultural elements to the individuals, ensuring the individuals to change their attitudes and behaviors about the relevant issues, and spreading the said changes to society; to do this the individuals should be informed and ensured to develop social experience and sharing skills. Here it is necessary to ensure the individuals to put such information into practice in developing the said attitudes, values, forms of behavior and habits, in other words to ensure them to have social experience, and to do this social interaction and participation media should be created. Therefore, the individuals should be trained by the public authorities providing services in disaster-related fields and by the private sector and non-governmental organizations who cooperate with the said authorities in order to help them to develop awareness and to have social experience within the said social interaction and participation media.
This study concludes that the public authorities providing services in disaster-related fields should make the individuals to be aware of the issues concerning protection against natural disasters and to be able to contribute to development a culture of alertness for disasters, and that activities should be organized by using the Internet communication technology (web communication) in such a manner to provide social interaction and social participation, by taking into consideration the levels of the relevant risk groups (i.e. individuals who were affected by the previous disasters and who might be affected by future disasters).
Can New Communication Technologies Eliminate the Obstacles in Front of the Free Communication Domain? - As we all know, each transformation being experienced in technology causes certain changes in communication domain. In our study, the premise that the internet, has added a new dimension especially to the mass communication in recent years is being considered, and whether this newly developed technology may lead a free communication domain is being questioned.
Frequently, the mass communication broadcasting, which has started on internet lately, is perceived as an alternative to the mass communication means. Accordingly, it is assumed that the problems which impede free communication domain, such as one-way flow of communication caused by traditional mass communication means, aggregation of media owners in certain centers and the inability of different voices to express themselves, may be reduced a little bit with the new way of communication. But, Internet technology brings about a range of problems unique to itself, and contrary to the expectations, it can not cope with every problem.
For us, believing that each technologic innovation will spontaneously bring “good” outcomes, reveals our priorities in social life. Today, to follow the technology precedes the freedom of expectations. Thus, although our study concentrates solely on communication being carried out through the internet, it is shaped by means of questioning the ways of understanding technology and the meanings associated with it. On the other hand, while our study focuses on the axis of the problem, it also considers the individual uses of technology and its counterparts in daily life. Right after examining the relationship between technology and human being, it questions the appearance of the virtual communication domains as a free communication means not only at a macro level but also in its daily usage.
The News Coverage of Islam in the UK National Dailies - In this research study, the main aim is to observe whether the news coverage in the UK national dailies lead to a negative perception of Islam and Muslims. Accordingly, the coverage of the three highest circulation UK tabloids was analysed in a thirty day (15 days of two selected months) period with content analysis method by using 40 news articles in total. The findings revealed that news about Islam are mostly presenting Islam as a one-dimensional phenomenon, by mentioning it mostly around chaotic events
An Evaluation on Discoursive Construction About European Union Discussions in Turkey - European Union membership process may be understood as a last point in the long-standing history of westernizing Turkey. It’s a reality that the defined processes and phases of the West layered in the discourse of government, and it was established as a main object of the government. Westernizing, as a main issue for Turkey, is a process that started with the efforts of Ottoman Empire and has a very wide background.
European Union membership process which has been carried out as a continuation of Turkish- Ottoman modernization has had a project quality which was validated by the government since 1959. It is also producing a discourse process intensifying the strong association of the government and the mentality of administration; and describing the social insufficiencies. The history of the relationship with the West appeared as a history of being degradation and embarrassment. The position of being a complete subject attributed to the West and the government’s own identity described by the West have carried the psychology of defeat to today. This position causes the continuities in discourse.
The West is being described with unique perception without any understanding and explaining in its own original dynamics. European Union membership process has been taking part in the agenda of Turkey for a long time. This process will be evaluated with examples from the press, focusing on its role in the discourse field, and the discourse strategies that comes from establishing the type of relationship with the West in the speciality of the ideas and explanations related with European Union.
"Political Elites and Press: Presentation of Political Elites as an Element of Political Culture - This study aimed to examine the style of presentation of Turkish political elites -who have a very important place in Turkish political culture- in popular press. In this frame, the news texts (published in Hurriyet journal, 1-31 March 2001) about Kemal Dervis (as a political elite) –who was invited by former Turkish prime minister Bülent Ecevit after the economic crises on February 19, 2001, to rescue the Turkish economy from crises- were analysed, with the following findings reached: Turkish popular press presented Kemal Dervis, as a “hero” who will rescue the Turkish economy from the crises. When Kemal Dervis was presented like this, the press always use the dominant political codes, values, figures, symbols and signs about that issue. Popular press also was often stress that Kemal Dervis is faithful with dominant and establishing ideology of Turkey.
"BELONGING TO NISANTASI" AS A POPULAR CULTURE ICON THROUGH THE DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE TV SERIAL "AVRUPA YAKASI"
In the recent years, there has been many discussions on being a member of the European Union. One of these has been how much European Turkey is. Turkey, besides being a young republic, is a cultural mosaic which has its roots in a historical background. Istanbul, the city where Turkey’s heart beats, houses a cosmopolitan structure. This structure, which is born out of this city, that brings east and west together, and which reconstructs itself as a result of this structure, not only reflects the pieces of contemporary Turkey but also re-establishes this reality again and again within the mobility of time.
This paper examined the concept which ironically personifies the westernized aspect of Turkey in “belonging to Nisantasi”, through analyzing discourse of “Avrupa Yakasi”. The purpose is to explain how the characters struggling for power, construct their own realities literally, which indeed reflect the Nisantasi world, and express them through which dualities. The key to analyze the context has been where the characters stood, what they included and excluded in their discourses. In the analysis of the complex causality we face while examining a social phenomena , Laclau and Mouffe’s approach is prefered for both being distant from reductionism and questioning the kind of articulations from which reality comes out. The serial is examined through this post-structuralist approach. Six parts have been worked on to scrutinize the social relations and contradictions within the discourses of the characters.
Club Culture in The Context of the Ideology of Consumption and Youth Subcultures - In the realm of popular culture, where oppression, resistance, distortion and assimilation take place, subcultures are dissident cultures created on a symbolic level by classes with dependant nature, resisting against the dominant symbols and values and distorting them. The subcultures of the youth, which is our subject, see no hope as to the solution of the problems of the present social system and feel estrangement and hatred. While expressing these, they first estrange themselves from the behaviors or lifestyles or clothing styles that are considered as "normal". This is followed by psychological processes such as contempt, rejection and challenge. However, the codes and symbols produced by such subcultures are deprived of their contents and remarketed by the capitalist system of production. Naturally, emerging as a product of capitalism and, at the same time, being a reaction against it, leads to some conflicts.
In spite of some symbolic elements of resistance created, the club culture, which is the subject of this study, has a very low degree of dissident content in comparison with "rock", "grunge" and similar subcultures. it is observed that shopping is emphasized as much as music and dancing in this culture. The sensitivity of these people to create identities for themselves made them the most important members of the modern consumism, through which symbols are supplied for sale; and the "comfortable, lively" style of clothing that they define as dissident was immediately subjected to mass production. These young people, influenced by the atmosphere of spiritual and social insecurity created by the modern capitalist society, are engrossed in the consumption culture with a great enthusiasm, while, on the other hand, they criticize the dominant values, which include such culture. They dream of a more libertarian world free from the traditional and moral concerns with no gender discrimination, where people are more intimate and happier. In this culture, the state of "us" is experienced in the commnunities emphasizing daneing, shopping and having fun, rather than within the framework of an ideology or of belonging to some lieu. Club culture is a subculture as it rejects the dominant culture's gender discrimination, its aesthetics (up to apoint) by the clothing style created, and its morality by the sympathy for the cigarettes, alcohol and drugs and by their free sexual lives. However, when it is considered that the subcultures estrange themselves from and hate the present system, it may be asserted that club culture is apolitical and in conformity with the present system in this sense.
Conceptualizing Male Objectification: Presentation of The New Male Images in the Advertisements of Turkish Male Magazines with the Samples of Male's Fragrance - In today’s consumer society, traditional approach to the gender and gender identity are no longer the same in the consumption. This means that there is no longer essential gender identity, no longer constant ideals about masculinity, feminity, and meanings of gender. The targets of the objectification are also no longer fixed and the issue of male objectification is often raised in gender classes. In relation to this, it is suggested that men are now equally objectified in advertisements with women. This paper firstly develops a theoretical explanation of the relation between gender and consumption. And, then the proliferation of sexualized and objectifed men and advertising will be discussed, as well as its dependence on the image of masculinity. The second part of the paper gives a qualitative analysis which examines the new male images shown by advertisers in the Turkish editions of Esquire, Max and FHM Magazines.
The Use Of Television as a Source Of Consciousness: The Study of Presentateon of Istanbul in The News as a Violence Densed City in Terms of Cultivation Theory - In this research, the holistic cultural role of the television was investigated. The Message System and Cultivation Analysis, which are the components of Cultural Indicators Project developed by George Gerbner, were utilized. In the analysis of the television news, Istanbul was presented as a violence densed city. Therefore, the field study investigated how Istanbul was perceived. The field study was carried out on Cumhuriyet High School students in Ankara. The results of the study revealed that television has a cultivation role with regard to some determined questions. Some tests carried out considering the gender variable revealed the mainstreaming role of the television. These results did not verify the criticisims aroused for Gerbner and his colleagues about the decline in the cultivation effect or lack of it. The difference, or originality, of this study from the previous ones is that it aims to understand whether the cultivation role of the television existed on the people living in another city depending on the presentation of the city as violence-densed on the television.
The Use Of Television as a Source Of Consciousness: The Study of Presentateon of Istanbul in The News as a Violence Densed City in Terms of Cultivation Theory - The unavoidable force that media established on individuals intends to eliminate the distinctions in their world of thoughts and to place only one meaning. The industry (entertainment, information, etc.) embedded in media culture causes one-dimensionality by manipulating individuals. This process is a mechanism that legalizes it and in which the culture and predominant ideology created by media is continuously fed. Within this mechanism media plays a mediator role between the individuals processing the power and their dependents. In this context, the reality presented through media texts is the reality edited by it and the types of thoughts created by the dominant involves in here.
Media has an understanding in which its own truth is reproduced constantly and it operates by establishing its own language and expression. While doing so, it comprises its own scope through particular suggestions, patterns and legalizations consistent with the predominant ideology that will meet its purpose. Media builds itself as a hegemonic power on the mass culture by shaping up everything related to daily living in its world of meaning.
Among the media works the production of meaning and concerning with the meaning dealing with the news indicates a problem. Revealing the ideological functions of the news produced by media culture indeed indicates that it has a more important central position than its other functions and demonstrates its effects on the community. In this context the media culture contributes to direction of masses.
In the ideological function of the media primarily involves the creating consent towards the legalization of social power and force. In the cultural context, the media that transmits widely ways of living to others, functions as a way to enable the creation of consumption demands and establish the reality consistent with economical requirements.
Media culture, by having the possibility to provide masses a world out of the daily living patterns which they feel they are confined to (this life represents a distinct world for which individuals who feel themselves economically crushed hope to reach), increases dependency toward itself in one hand and ensures that predominant ideology is continuous in the other hand.
The expression in the media which follows the changes in the political system can create educated individuals who are modernized, who have elite pleasures, who live in urban area, who have western values and who are liberal-naturalist. In this context, media provides a way of life according to the pleasure and enjoyment offered by state of prosperity and infiltrates into daily life. This surrender is accomplished by media and its culture.
The aim of this study is to consider what type of functional mechanism is used by the media which is in the position of producer of the news texts and the culture it offers as to shape up the mass culture and also to assess which criteria media uses to determine the scope of living within the context of the Turkish society.
