It Is A Choice

It is not wrong to descrive ‘media’ as a growing field today. We have so many different channels, magazines, newspapers…etc. But the question is how reliable are they and how do we judge it?

Over the bayram holiday I have tried to follow different media outlets and saw that their publication/broadcast is highly related with their owners. I could only analyzed KanalD, NTV, TV7, ATV, SesTV, Star and also some newspaper Sabah,Milliyet and Hürriyet, just for a short time but the results were interesting.

According to my personal observations, ATV, Sestv and TV7 don’t have neutral broadcasts. Even though unemployment is a big issue in these days we could not see news and reports about eunemployment on these channels as we see on the others. There is also another example of ‘Ergenekon’ which is a very important case and takes recenntly a huge part on the media lately. We all know that there is also the ‘Deniz Feneri Case’ going on at the same time but these channels show their sides on this too and does not really adress the ‘Deniz Feneri’ while they bring the ‘Ergenekon’ foreground. I could see no other reason but relate these with the owners of these broadcasting companies. To be close to the government, these people have sides on their channels and it is unexpected for us to trust these media outlests.

On the other hand as I watch the NTV, I have seen that it’s broadcast is more reliable. The news were short, there was no such pointless talking under the name of ‘news’. Not only the local issues but also the news from the world take place and celebrity news take place on the second hand.

As you may know, NTV has also a radio broadcast and we could listen people with different point of wiews in those open court programmes. This is important for being neutral and it makes the broadcast more reliable.

It is also same for the newspapers. When we look at the news on KanalD and Star for example it could be surprising to see that Hürriyet, Milliyet and Posta have the same kind of news. All these belong to the same company and the reason they make adherent news was because of the personal benefits. This also brings out the question; are the poeple who follow these also wants to take sides? The same issue is valid for ATV and Sabah, two media outlets of the same person.

To sum up, even it is good to have options of media distributing different ideas, it is also a fact that broadcasting companies do really work beneficial. It a choice to get effected from these or to be aware of the neutrality of the media outlets we follow.

1 comment December 15, 2008

My Journey with the Media

My first meeting with the media was Sesame Street , the old TV programme for the small children. I don’t remember it all but my mom still tells that how she used it to feed me when I was a baby. In those days, (as she said) there weren’t as many TV programmes as we have today in Turkey, especially for the children. Sesame Street was the only one and also she discovered that I eat really well as a crabby child while watching it! That was how my journey with media has started; three times a day just like a full pension hotel where you always eat because it’s included even you don’t feel like it at the time.

I used to love those days when you woke up and see that everywhere is white, covered with snow! After looking out from the window for a while the first thing my brother and I do was to run for the TV. Exciting moments begin, to catch an announcement between the news or to see a subtitle that is saying the schools are closed and it either continues with a sunshine or a comedown. In that elementary school years, Tv was more like a good friend to me with the excpectations to get good news from.

There was a period (around the middle school) that MTV was the only channel for me. Whatever is open at that time I directly pick up the remote and switch it to the channel 34 ,MTV. (I could still remember the number even it has changed.) Tv was more like a radio to me and it was open 24/7 even I was in my room and not watching it. When I did this, I also turned on the volume so I could hear it from my room and run to it to see the video clip of song that I like. Maybe I was not a huge fan of the other programmes but this clearly shows me that it still is a big part of my life.

Later I found myself watching some series with my mom. They were fun and there was an exciting process of ‘what is going to happen’. Even I enjoyed watching these shows it started to gave some dividing signals to our family. My dad never liked these kind of shows and only thing he does while watching was making fun of with the things in the shows.This resulted as a conflict between mom and dad and my brother usually took the side of watching a football game. It still was not harmful as you may think, because it turned into a game in our family to take sides and decide on a channel by convincing each other.

Our innocent game went up to a higher class with the emerge of a second TV in our house. It was smaller than the other one and it was in the dining room where you don’t get to sit as comfy as in the living room. Now we could watch the programmes we would like in seperate rooms but now there was another battle of who gets the big TV and the comfy coach.

The number of the channels increased and so many different programmes appered on those channels since the Sesame Street. Hovewer TV happens to be in my life during this continuous process of media.It could be someone who gives me good news, it could be a music, it could be the weather or an animal documentary, a movie that I couldn’t catch on the cinema,a cheesecake recipe I want to try…it could be my life!

Now, when I look through all of this it is funny that I found myself couldn’t watch TV at all during the Bayram holiday. Sabancı University was a cut through between me and the television. All the series I follow, the news, even the reality shows are no longer exist in my life anymore. At the beginning I didn’t have time, now I don’t have desire.This clearly showed me that watching TV is nothing more than a habit in my life.

1 comment December 14, 2008

Which side are you?

He comes home one day. He was in a sweet rush with an excitement. He takes a shower and dresses up while his dad is setting the table up for two of them. He smiles to his son’s extiment and tells us that ’He is meeting the Mr. Right tonight’. Yes, I am talking about the 1994 movie that is adopted by a screenplay of  David Stevens, Sum Of Us.

First of all I must say that I really like the movie. It gives us a great visual of the relationship between a father and a gay son. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t the perfect son and father in the whole world. He gets mad when his father leaves the shower dripping and he couldn’t stand when he pushes his plate away after he finishes the dinner. But none of these could be as scathing as the words “You mean nothing to me. You walk out that door, it doesn’t matter. And if you come back in, I’m going to spit in your face. I don’t care if I’m on my deathbed, I’ll still have the energy to spit in your face.”  (Gaitskill, M. Tiny smiling daddy) Those are the words that has been said to a daughter after his father learned that she is a lesbian.

When we compare the movie(Sum of Us) with the story Tiny Smilin Daddy, we see that the situations are almost same but the reactions were totally different. These conflict also occurs in the movie when Jeff(the main gay charecter) introduces us Greg, the guy he likes. There is a clear difference between their parents. One acceptted his son being a gay and he even made an effort to get to know his ‘new son’. Although, my thoughts are in the same way with the father in the movie, I even surprised by some of his actions. He buys gay magazines and when he firt learn that he is a gay, he goes to the club with him just to see where his son hangs out. Lots of people wouldn’t be comfortable in such situations but when we compare the results with the story. It is obvious that Harry(father in the movie) is on the right track. He has an awesome relationship with his son which is enviable but on the other hand there is Kitty and her father, two strangers living in the same house. Jeff could bring his friend home to meet his father when Kitty prefers to write an article to his dad instead of talking.

The movie and the story are also both related the topic to the generations. We thought that Kitty has a bad father because his grandad was not a good one either. In the movie we know that Jeff’s grandma was a lesbian and they had a really close relationship when he was a kid. He once said that when he woke up and saw his grandma in the bed cuddled up with a woman it looked natural to him. This also can explain Harry being more tolerant on the situation because his own mother was a lesbian. He even makes a joke saying that ‘It is in their blood and just skipped a generation.’

 I just want to add one more thing about the movie. Harry wants the best of everything for Jeff and I think it was really interesting when he mentioned “He is missing something important:making a baby.”

For the ones that are interested, these two stories gives us a total different dimensions of a same situation. You can be on the side that will turn around and walk out the door the minute you heard it, or you can try to be a real father who wants to know his son and protects him all the time.Even though, this might mean to leave a loved one who sees Harry as a shame.

2 comments November 3, 2008