Representation of the Dominant Political Ideology within a Cartoon Series: A Turkish Case

Abstract

1. IntroductionThe concept of "childhood" is understood as being a stage in life open to learning and shaping (Casey, et al., 2008). Generally, it is seen as an important part of internalizing the dominant sociocultural norms and values. Although Freud (1933) suggests that a sense of personal identity is learnt by observation of and interactions with others, the increasing role of the media on learning is undeniable. A growing body of literature demonstrates that with their colourful and captivating imagery, prime time television cartoons provide a unique opportunity for children to obtain new knowledge and even to modify their attitudes and behaviours. These programs are social constructions, which are prepared for children at the micro level by their parents and at the macro level by the dominant ideology (Buckingham, 2001). Thus, assuming prime time television cartoons to be one of the biggest sources of teaching does not mean that every single thing that it conveys to children has a positive content. As Former Federal Communication Commissioner of the United States of America Nicholas Johnson said, "...All television is educational: the only question is what it is teaching?" (Johnson, 1999 as cited in Thompson and Zebrinos 1995, p. 415). Therefore, analysing the content of the prime time television cartoon series and seeing how much children notice the given messages in those texts is significant in how it shapes the perceptions and future outlook of the children and, in the long term, of the country.This study focuses particularly on Turkey, whose freedom of expression index is 65 out of 100, where zero is considered the best and 100 considered the worst (FHR, 2015). Accordingly, this study aims to analyse and evaluate the first Turkish prime time television children cartoon series Pepee in relation to the dissemination of the Turkish ruling party AKP's ideology.2. Research MethodThis research has been conducted to illustrate the reflection and presentation of the AKP ideology in the first Turkish prime time television cartoon series entitled Pepee. For a complete and careful illustration of such an issue, a qualitative research methodology was utilized with a combination of exploratory and descriptive forms of research design.The data was derived from the 211 episodes of the "Pepee" cartoon series broadcast from 2008 September until 2015 January on TRT Kids, Show TV and TV 8 channels. Each cartoon episode was approximately ten minutes long and the episodes were accessed via the Internet, downloaded, archived and analysed.Discourse analysis, which is the study of the narrative of the content of a text, was employed in the illustration phase of the research. Narrative consists of visual signs that include all the images and graphics that are seen on the screen and aural signs that consist of speech, sound and music which television produces (Bignell, 2013). Accordingly, the language, food and beverages, clothes and accessories, the songs and the music used throughout the episodes were analysed. Additionally, the frequency of appearance and emotional relations among characters, as well as their socioeconomic and socio-cultural status were examined and compared with the AKP worldview in order to answer the main question of how the AKP ideology is reflected and disseminated within the cartoon series.In order to anchor the discussion within the salient issues pertaining to the area of study, the findings will be presented in tandem with the background information related to these issues.3.Findings and Discussion3.1Background of PepeePepee is Turkey's first cartoon project, which has been broadcast since 2008. It was designed especially for pre-school age groups (3-6 years) with the aim of entertaining and educating them. The name of the titular character, a four-year old boy, is derived from the term used in the Anatolian region of Turkey. "Pepee" refers to someone with speech difficulties. …