Representations of intergenerational relationships in children's television in Turkey

Abstract

As contemporary populations age in developed countries, and as the diversity of age groups leading active and productive lives increases, the construction and performance of age, as a constituent of social identity, becomes more varied and complex. Indeed, scholars such as Nick Lee (2001), Anne Davis Basting (1998), and Susan Neiman (2015) argue that in postmodern societies, there are almost unlimited ways of experiencing and conceiving of age. Unsurprisingly, the design of content and texts in media, which plays a critical role in introducing children to a range of age-related imaginary material, reflects these demographic and cultural shifts. In Turkey, for instance, the percentage of elderly people is expected to double from 10 to 20 percent by the year 2050, while children aged fourteen and below currently make up a quarter of Turkey’s population. 1 These numbers indicate an increasingly elderly population, which suggests that intergenerational relationships will acquire greater significance in children’s lives. In this chapter we investigate how these relationships are portrayed in Turkish cartoon series on children’s television, with a particular focus on depictions of fictional elderly characters. According to Carl DiSalvo (2009), media design can facilitate the growth of pluralistic public discourse, if its characters encourage inclusion and pluralism (48). This study seeks insight into this process, analyzes the degree to which it is occurring in contemporary Turkey, and explores possibilities for the future.