Broadcasting A Festivity Without Offending The Other

Abstract

This paper deals with how Turkish commercial channels serve wholeheartedly the demands of political and military officials on issues involving national sentiments. Nevruz Bayramı, (a folk festivity) which was initiated before the arrest of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in 1999 as a symbol to both reinforce Kurdish identity and challenge Turkish national unity, was originally anathema to Turkish authorities. Now the media have thrown their weight behind the official campaign to transform the concept of Nevruz, providing full coverage to the newly-evolved Nevruz, a pseudo-event staged for public consumption. This paper hopes to shed some light on the media-state partnership in creating the new concept of Nevruz, now a government symbol of nationality, examining the reasons the media so thoroughly cooperated with authorities in constructing a new reality around Nevruz, how they in so doing served their own interests and preserved their economic monopoly