Transformation in Daytime Television Programs in Turkey since 2000

Introduction

All of the mass media that more or less influence people's perceptions communicate the masses the messages of their liking with the concerns of continuing their existence, and strive to make the masses actually ask for such messages (Erengezgin, 1993, p.5). It wouldn't be assertive to say that in the heart of the wide use of mass media is television. For television still holds the power to reach the largest masses today. 55 to 88% of the households in Western countries have television, and in 80% of them television is viewed almost every day (Coste Cerdon, 1992, p.68). Television was developed in the United States and spread to world in 1950s. While this communication media that took an important place in peoples' lives before long, first assumed the function of satisfying the need for information and learning, nowadays, its entertainment function is more prominent. The research shows that Turkish society spends an average of four hours a day in front of television (Akkor, 2005, p.58). Since the rate of literacy is low in developing countries such as Turkey, the messages conveyed by television is easier to comprehend than those conveyed by other mass media. Because television has a significant influence on the way people perceive life and events, its entertainment function must be performed with the consciousness that it is addressing the public domain. One doesn't have to know how to read and write to be able to understand the messages conveyed by television; ability to see and hear suffices to comprehend these messages. Therefore, the target audience of television is less specific than that of other mass media, and it addresses people from all walks of life without discriminating between cultures and classes. Televisions programs that have large variety of contents are able to offer alternatives also to women-man, young-old, and people with different nationality and religion. The fact that television offers what is current and demanded, as well as the fact that it is easy to obtain make it all the more appealing.

Television is -a sophisticated- story-telling device. Structures producing texts of different types of programs aired on television are developed based on the story. These story telling models are not products of printing technology; these story telling models were developed long before the printing technology, during the times when the oral culture prevailed; by using narrative models, television has enabled the oral culture to become the focus in modern societies again.