Understanding 'New Turkey' Through Women's Eyes: Gender Politics in Turkish Daytime Talk Shows

Abstract

Following the AKP's second election victory in 2007. significant changes to the party programme and strategy evolved into the 'New flukey,' a new, more abstractly defined discursive and operational space. This both redefined democratic practices and generated a backlash to gender equality and the status of women. As media is a powerful hegemonic tool, where political actors compete for influence, analysis of television daytime talk shows reflects similar gender role-making processes within Turkish society. We study one of the most popular shows in Turkey, hosted by Seda Sayan through 'discursive governance' and in which political actor discourses influence the public agenda through active sense-making, a process in which the media plays a critical disseminating and legitimating role, particularly in restrictive political settings. We argue that the show (now no longer broadcast) was a locus of discursive governance. Identity and habitus in the 'New Turkey' discourse strategically were projected in such shows, rendering formal policy change to affect behavioral shifts unnecessary. Seda Sayan's show thus expressed a conservative and gendered public normative narrative, one that the AKP government has developed into a dominant normative order.