Understanding Media and Culture in Turkey ─ Structures, Spaces, Voices

Discourse (both popular and academic) surrounding Turkey has leaned toward the reductionist and the de-contextualized, framing Turkish media, culture and politics in polarized terms such as East vs. West, Modern vs. Traditional or Muslim vs. Christian. The objective of this new volume is to move away from such essentialist dichotomies and to provide scholars with a well-written, comprehensive and much-needed investigation into media and culture in Turkey.

Three themes, "Structures," "Spaces" and "Voices," make up the core structure of the book, providing an intellectual and epistemological arc. Following an introductory chapter written by the co-editors, the first section, "Structures," provides critical examinations of the structural underpinnings of contemporary Turkish media and culture through analyses of, for example, journalism, cultural policy, Information Society and citizenship. The second section, "Spaces," connects Turkish media and culture to spatial/locational factors: Turkey’s role and place in Europe; the Turkish diasporic space; representations of the Turkish "East;" and Istanbul as urban/social space. In the final section, "Voices," the book turns toward chapters that address central issues in contemporary Turkish media—for example, Islam, arabesk music and the presentation of Kurds on national television—from a cultural perspective.

The text will be essential reading for scholars within, for example, Middle and Near Eastern Studies, Media Studies, Sociology who wish to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between media, politics and culture in this complex and increasingly important country.

Christian Christensen is Associate Professor in the Department of Informatics and Media at Uppsala University in Sweden. He is the author of numerous book chapters and peer-reviewed articles on media and communication in Turkey, journalism, media, new technology and conflict. His research has been published in journals such as Media, War & Conflict, The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, Global Media & Communication, The British Journalism Review and Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture.

Miyase Christensen is Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communication Studies at Karlstad University in Sweden. In addition to the books mentioned below, Christensen has published numerous international articles and book chapters and her research areas include: globalisation processes and the political economy of media; media and information society policies (with an emphasis on the EU and Turkey); media, identity, citizenship and politics. Her current projects include and international collaborative work on new media communities, transnationalization and citizenship.