Society Transformed and Translated in Digital Environment: A Netnographic Approach to Digital Media Translation Practices of Bulgarian Turks
Burcu KanıdinçIn contrast to traditional media studies, new media studies examine digital media as an interactional network organization. It also includes communication and media practices associated with information and communication technologies. As the participant plays a role in reproducing and reconstructing the text in the new media, cooperation between the participants is enabled. Social media networks, one of the most important communication tools of new media, are platforms in which people establish relationships and carry out their connections remotely, without any limits, and where they are able to increase their selective affinity tendency. Digital environments, where a culture of convergence is formed by creating non-anonymous profiles of people like Facebook and creating an environment of mutual consensus, give people the opportunity to build a common identity. The position of translation practices in new media is also a projection of the participatory sharing culture. The aim of this study is to make inferences with netnographic analysis through the digital environment translation practices of Bulgarian Turks in a digital environment. The study focused on a Facebook group for Turkish migrants in Bulgaria. The group members are adept at navigating at least two countries, languages, religions, and cultures, and these elements transform fluidly within each other. The study yielded uninterpreted data about their cultural interactions and transfers based on the digital traces of the participants via a netnographic method. It also aimed to present the translation practices of the specified group in a digital environment with a netnographical analysis, with an examination of Henry Jenkin’s convergence culture and participatory culture concepts in network society.
Dijital Ortamda (Ç)evrilen Toplum: Bulgaristan Göçmenlerinin Dijital Ortam Çeviri Pratiklerine Netnografik Bir Yaklaşım
Burcu KanıdinçYeni medya çalışmaları, geleneksel medya çalışmalarının aksine dijital mecrayı etkileşimsel ağlar örgütlenmesi olarak ele alır. Bu dijitallik kapsamında bilgi ve iletişim teknolojileriyle bağlantılı iletişim ve medya pratiklerini kapsar. Yeni medyada, katılımcının metni yeniden üretip yapılandırma rolü bulunduğundan katılımcılar arasında işbirliği mümkündür. Yeni medyanın en önemli iletişim araçlarından biri olan sosyal medya ağları, insanların ilişkiler kurduğu ve bağlantılarını hiçbir sınır olmaksızın uzaktan gerçekleştirdiği, seçici yakınlık eğilimlerini artırdığı araçlardır. Facebook gibi kişilerin anonim olmayan profilleriyle yakınsama kültürünün bir parçası olduğu dijital ortamlar, insanlara ortak bir kimlik oluşturma fırsatı verir. Çeviri pratiğinin yeni medyada aldığı konum da bahsedilen katılımcı paylaşımcı kültürün bir izdüşümüdür. Bu bağlamda, çalışmanın amacı, Bulgaristan göçmenlerinin, göçmen kimlikleriyle dijital ortamdaki çeviri pratiklerine dair çıkarımlarda bulunmaktır. Çalışmada Bulgaristan'dan Türkiye'ye göç eden göçmenlerin bir araya geldiği, en az iki ülke, dil, din ve kültürün dahil olduğu ve bu unsurların birbiri içinde akıcı bir şekilde dönüştüğü gözlemlenen bir Facebook grubuna odaklanıldı. Netnografik yöntemle, katılımcıların dijital ayak izlerine dayanarak, kültürel etkileşimleri ve aktarımları hakkında ham saha verilerine ulaşıldı. Belirtilen grubun dijital ortamdaki çeviri pratiklerine, Manuel Castells’in bahsettiği ağ toplumunda, Henry Jenkins tarafından ortaya atılan yakınsama kültürü ve katılımcı kültür kavramlarıyla yaklaşılarak netnografik bir çözümle sunmak amaçlandı.
Unlike traditional media tools, new media tools include social media networks, which use information and communication technologies and new socialities arising in these networks. The agents of new socialities are developing in a democratic, fast, and horizontal digital environment. Participatory and convergence culture (Jenkins, 2006a, 2006b and 2009) is indispensable in this environment. Because participants come together on a common platform to exchange information and establish connections in digital environments, they comprise a “convergence culture” (Jenkins, 2019) and create a collective intelligence, “making all relevant information available to [them] at any time” (Lévy, 1999, 217).
The new network-based socialities and democratization movement that came to the fore with the sociological turn in the field of translation (Bogenç-Demirel & Süter-Görgüler, 2019; Bogenç-Demirel, Süter-Görgüler & Kurmel, 2017; Bogenç-Demirel, 2014) reveal the importance of focusing on the digital media translation practices of actors in the field. Digital media translation practices, which are the reproducer of social-media-based movements, play a mediating role in the interaction and cultural exchange between new actors of new media. Due to the fact that convergence is also a “cultural change” (Jenkins, 2019, 20), we focused on the digital media translation practices of Bulgarian Turks who are adept at navigating at least two languages, countries, and cultures. Bulgarian Turks have arrived in Turkey in several waves of migration since the establishment of the Republic of Turkey until the present day (those with the character of mass migration movement occurred in four large waves until 1989). On the other hand, the Bulgarian Turks who migrated are struggling to protect and maintain their common cultural values. This desire has also been reflected in the digital environment with mutual interaction.
The aim of the study is to examine the reflections of the society, which is transformed and translated by the behaviors specific to the network society, on the digital environment in a closed group formed on the Facebook and to make inferences through digital media translation practices. The research questions developed in this direction are as follows: “Considering the posts shared in the group, how do the behaviors specific to the ‘convergence culture’ and ‘participatory culture’ exhibited by the community members in the network society, as the focal point of netnographic analysis, reflect on the digital environment?” and “How do agents in the network build digital media translation practices?”
The methodological approach of the study is netnography, “internet or network ethnography,” which was introduced by Kozinets (2010, 1). Netnography, which makes it possible to reach the “natural,” “uninterrupted data” set in the digital environment, is one of the “solid methods” that can be used to reach the cultural experiences of the researched community (Kozinets, 2010, 11–12). In this study, we tried to analyze the digital media translation practices of the Bulgarian Turks with respect to the concepts of “convergence culture,” “participatory culture” (Jenkins, 2006a, 2006b and 2009), and “collective intelligence” Lévy (1999), in line with the netnographic methodological approach.
The findings of the netnographical analysis showed that participatory culture has led to a cycle in which each individual within the group struggles to exist and produce more content. The mission of carrying the network to a sustainable position is important for the agents to increase the group dynamics. The group is a multi-lingual, multi-layered, and active platform where translation practice takes place continuously, including at least one bilingual social network platform where both Turkish and Bulgarian language and culture are included in the circulation. It would not be wrong to claim that Bulgarian Turks, who are the subject and object of their own change and transformation with the change of living environment, language, and culture, use the translation practice as a reproduction tool in the relevant digital platform for the interaction and transformation of the digital environment.
