Özlem

Assoc. Prof.

Pınar

Assist. Prof.

Constanza

Dramatic serialized television content currently enjoys a dominant position in the television and OTT global market. Simultaneously, production and consumption are changing due to digital technologies. In this environment, long-established telenovela production powerhouses—Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and U.S. Telemundo—face new opportunities and threats that complicate some of the differences between their local and global audiences. In addition, new non-Latino-American players, such as Turkey, have been displacing telenovela producers in several markets, including on their own turf. Turkish dramas—dizis—have made a global footprint. Annual revenue from overseas sales of Turkish TV shows exceeded the $300 million mark in 2017, giving Turkey a 25% share of the international market for television fiction. Turkey and the major telenovela producers mentioned above are undergoing political and economic changes that impact their television sectors, the stories they tell, and their production conditions. As production decision makers for both telenovelas and dizis factor in both their national audiences and contexts and the global market trends, the perennial tension between prioritizing the domestic or the international market has become even more critical. Underpinned by how they rank local ratings versus global sales, these tensions influence the writing, casting and production processes. In this chapter, I examine the tensions between local and global markets for the telenovelas produced for Telemundo and Univision—which are inextricably linked to Mexico’s telenovela production and consumption—and for Turkish dizis, and how these impact their production.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Carolina

Prof.

Will It Travel? The Local Vs. Global Tug-of-war for  Telenovela and Turkish Dizi  Producers

In March 2014, Turkish melodramas took Chilean TV screens, and thereafter Latin American screens, by storm. Since then, Chilean television has incorporated Turkish productions in its usual programming. Ten titles were broadcast during the first two years. Between 2014 and 2018, 40 melodramas were aired, and for the last two years they have occupied more screen time than fictions from any other country, including Chile. What are the reasons for the success of Turkish dramas in the Chilean context? What are the main challenges that Chilean and Turkish productions have been facing since the eruption of Turkish telenovelas? The methodology used in this research was that of a semi-structured interview which was conducted with 146 people in order to discover the reason for the appeal of Turkish telenovelas as compared with local melodramas that were broadcast at the same time. These interviews were used to build selection criteria for nine in-depth interviews. The results indicate that Turkish telenovela succeeded in Chile for various reasons. First, these telenovela produced an identification by contrast or opposition in the viewers due to the fact that the recognition of a distinct other affirms and assures one’s own experience. Second, the novelty of showing places, characters, and stories that have not been seen before that were produced by an industry unknown to Chileans, resulted in the return of more classic dramas and narratives as well as melodrama aesthetic to the television screen. Third, the type of audiences of these programs grew and diversified thereby influencing Chilean programming. The results presented above suggest that telenovela must begin to utilize local characteristics more frequently in order to generate conditions for the global recognition of a Chilean production model.

Lorena

Pablo

Digital Transformations and the  Impact of Turkish Telenovelas in  Chile: Back to Melodrama

Turkish television series have become increasingly popular in India, particularly since the telecast of the dubbed version of Adını Feriha Koydum in 2015. While India has a strong market of regional language TV series or serials, as they are known locally, international shows, except for syndicated television content from the United States, have hardly been popular in traditional television broadcasting. However, the rising popularity of Turkish television series and their circulation through digital media in India have opened up a rich site for exploring changing practices of audience engagement with transnational television content. This paper draws from ethnographic fieldwork among audiences of Turkish television series in India. Presently, there are hardly any Turkish series available on Indian cable television channels, barring a few on video on demand (VoD) platforms. However, social media platforms, such as Facebook, video-sharing sites, like YouTube, and file-sharing torrent sites, have continued the circulation of Turkish television series in India. These alternative modes of distribution compel us to rethink the notions of technology, medium, and emerging viewing practices and underline the parallel, often illegitimate circuits of distribution and access to international television content. Hence, this paper broadly addresses how Turkish TV series become an emblematic instance of understanding transnational media flow through alternative digital channels in a neoliberal, developing country like India.

Sushmita

Saayan

Turkish Television Series in India: Tracing the Alternative Circuits of Transnational Media Flow

In recent years Turkish TV series have gained popularity among the Cuban population. This is the first time that Brazilian, Mexican and Colombian soap operas - traditionally with many followers on the island - have been displaced by Turkish products regarding the preference of the national public. Access to Turkish TV series in Cuba isn´t through national television broadcast. The distribution is happening from an alternative network of informal exchange of audiovisual products. The popularly known “Weekly Package- el paquete” (a kind of offline Netflix with 1 terabyte of information that can be purchased clandestinely on the island for the approximate value of 1 USD) distributes new episodes of Turkish soap operas on a weekly basis. Hence, because of the informal nature of its distribution, it is very difficult to know accurately the audience rating and other relevant data of the reception process regarding Turkish Television Series. This study aims to explore the distribution, access and consumption strategies of Turkish TV series in Cuba from a qualitative methodological perspective. Since the study is the first research on las turcas in Cuba, it presents some valuable data on the current situation of popular culture in Cuba with a focus on Turkish television series.

Nadia

Laura

The Consumption of Turkish Tv  Series in Cuba: A Study on the  Distribution, Access, and Effects of  Popular Culture

Through this article, I aim to present the results of my empirical research concerning the representations of Turkish culture projected by Turkish television soap operas and their reception by Greeks. More precisely, the narrative that nourished the Greek War of Independence, is based not only to the direct descendants of modern Greeks from ancient Greeks but also to the difference between the modern Greek identity and the Turkish culture which was considered as the exact opposite. Thus, negative stereotypes emerged from both sides and these stereotypes dominate collective imaginaries until today. During the period of the economic crisis, as Greek television channels did not have the means to produce local series, they turned to productions from the neighboring country. Turkish television soap operas propose an “alternative modernity” as not only they contain ingredients that conduct the viewer into a fantasy world of globalized consumerism and romantic love that defies national boundaries, but they also project traditional family structures and gender roles. It is this element that differentiates the soap operas in question from the American prototype. This “alternative modernity” seems to be more familiar to Greek audiences than the modernity proposed by occidental television products. As a consequence, through the consumption of Turkish drama series, Greeks have the possibility to re-examine the representation they have for the Turks and are invited to discover not only the cultural differences but also the common traits between the two populations.

Dimitra

“They’re Not That Much Different  After All…”. The Reception of  Turkish Series by Greeks: Between  Alterity and Proximity

Television series is one of the production types that has a wide audience in the broadcasting industry. Turkish series have a rising value that are received with a great interest both in national and international scale. In this study, how the series İstanbullu Gelin (La Novia de Estambul) presents cultural codes by creating a universal context, will be analyzed. With both its nomination for an international award and its formal features differentiation in the Turkish series industry, İstanbullu Gelin was chosen as a sample of the study. Following a survey, it is revealed that the viewers of İstanbullu Gelin are encoding the cultural codes . The study investigates which cultural codes exist , how these codes are received, how to create a universal context beyond the national in İstanbullu Gelin by conducting a questionnaire with open ended and closed ended questions, a technique that was made using the/a descriptive study method. The aim of this study is to describe how Turkish cultural values are received and how the audience gave meaning to the cultural codes through the television series and to determine of the existence of cultural codes in İstanbullu Gelin and the universal representation of these cultural codes. The method of the study is qualitative research that provides descriptive data for the topic of study and also the questionnaire technique is made use of in the study. In the study, the sample group is created to represent strong ability and it is targeted to gather systematic data through the obtained data. It is revealed that maternity and being a peer are equally sacred and most of the participants think that family, relatives and children are Turkish cultural values.&nbsp;

Cultural Codes Creating a  Universal Context and Reception of  The Audience: the Case Study of İstanbullu Geli̇n

The idea that guides this research is that Turkish melodramas participate in Latin American melodrama’s cultural and symbolic field associated with shared identity matrices - urban and rural, tradition and modernity. This cultural and symbolic capital is expressed in the topics of love, feminine subjectivities, family, conflicts, and traditions. What topics do they offer us? What dialogues do they establish with our cultural matrices? What changes have they produced on Peruvian television? In Peru, melodrama appears as a narrative form that makes the social order transparent. A form of representation of life with its own characteristics: women as protagonists of their own history, women as competent subjects in the most extreme conditions, and female sisterhood. Some findings of this research show that Turkey’s melodramas have displaced the Brazilian, Colombian and American industry -among others- as source of foreign titles in Peruvian television. The most important topics are love and family, while religion appears as a meeting point for two countries with deep Faith traditions. A shared characteristic of Turkish and Peruvian productions is the centrality of female subjectivities and emotions. Finally, Turkish stories mobilize the local industry and offer a new repertoire of images to the audiences.

Giuliana

Digital Transformation: Turkish Melodramas on Peruvian Television

While new communication technologies offer film production companies new possibilities, they also create new problems. Dramas have begun to be broadcast in new broadcast media other than traditional television. Among these is YouTube, a social media application and a video-sharing platform. Our study reviews The Magnificent Century drama. The reason for choosing The Magnificent Century drama is that it is the Turkish drama that has been exported to the most countries. Official channels were opened on YouTube for The Magnificent Century drama in 12 languages. In our research, we will use content analysis to try and identify the similar and different aspects of the YouTube channels in 12 different languages. Later, our study will focus in greater depth on the Turkish YouTube channel itself, which was the first to be opened, and which had the highest number of followers and views, as well as the highest number of shares, on the date our study was made. Open-ended questions were prepared and sent to the TIMs production company via e-mail, and the answers were also received via e-mail. Our study aims to determine the importance of YouTube and the possibilities it offers for the showing of Turkish dramas.

Özgü

Youtube as a New Broadcasting  Medium for Turkish Tv Dramas:  The Case of the Magnificent  Century Drama

Television series are undoubtedly an audio-visual production space that people in every country are eagerly following. Television series are known to have an impact in the public sphere. These effects are discussed in various topics. Another feature of television series, which can be examined in many dimensions in public life, is that productions are demanded not only nationally but also in the international arena. 
Television series produced in Turkey are in demand worldwide and this issue is worth examining from a scientific point of view. Examining this issue as an export element is another research title. In this context, this book offers an idea of the domain, reception status and acceptance of international turkish television series in various countries. As a foresight; television will have quite a series as well; perhaps it will change in terms of production techniques, but it will continue to be popular as a production type. 
This book aims to contribute the field that needs to be discussed at all points in media scope and we hope to light the fuse for the international academic community.

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

Editor	Özlem Arda, Pınar Aslan, Constanza Mujica
Television series are undoubtedly an audio-visual production space that people in every country are eagerly following. Television series are known to have an impact in the public sphere. These effects are discussed in various topics. Another feature of television series, which can be examined in many dimensions in public life, is that productions are demanded not only nationally but also in the international arena. Television series produced in Turkey are in demand worldwide and this issue is worth examining from a scientific point of view. Examining this issue as an export element is another research title. In this context, this book offers an idea of the domain, reception status and acceptance of international turkish television series in various countries. As a foresight; television will have quite a series as well; perhaps it will change in terms of production techniques, but it will continue to be popular as a production type. This book aims to contribute the field that needs to be discussed at all points in media scope and we hope to light the fuse for the international academic community.
Subjects	Film, Radio, Television

E-ISBN	978-605-07-0756-4
Publisher	Istanbul University Press
Publish Date	12.07.2021
Cover (PDF)
Front Pages (PDF)
Full Text (PDF)

Transnationalization of Turkish Television Series