Üsküdar Üniversitesi Faculty of Communication, from the Visual Communication Design Department, Assistant Professor Dr. Cem Tutar's authored book, “Dynamics of Daily Life on Television,” met readers.
“The Work Addresses Social Reality Through Reality Shows”
Assistant Professor Dr. Cem Tutar's work, titled “Dynamics of Daily Life on Television - Postmodern Time and Space Landscapes in Reality Programs,” was published by Doruk Publications. The work, which is Tutar's doctoral thesis in book form, makes a significant contribution to the literature by examining reality programs sociologically and socio-psychologically. Tutar stated that the subject of the book is reality shows: “The main subject of the book consists of reality programs. In this work, these programs are not approached unidirectionally but from sociological and socio-psychological perspectives, considering many viewpoints. Looking at the literature, there is no text written on this subject; in this sense, the work is the first study in Turkey to examine reality programs from a socio-psychological perspective. Before this work, reality shows were only explained through a fiction-reality perspective and mass communication theories. With this work, they found an opportunity to be evaluated from many different sociological and psychological perspectives.” he said.
“Reality Shows Share Common Characteristics with Daily Life”
Tutar stated that reality programs share common aspects with daily life, and that his work is based on the views of French theorist Lefebvre's sociology of everyday life. Tutar; “Reality programs have a common characteristic with daily life. The sociology of everyday life belongs to the French theorist Henri Lefebvre. Until then, Lefebvre brought a new perspective by shifting the subject of sociology, which consisted of grand narratives, to ordinary life. In my study, I examined reality shows, which deal with daily life and ordinary people, from all aspects. In the work, I presented a detailed analysis of reality shows across 3 main categories: crime programs (criminal programs), lifestyle programs (life style), and competition programs, through different sociological and psychological dynamics.” he stated.
“Dynamics of Daily Life on Television is an Interdisciplinary Work”
Tutar stated that the process of the work becoming a book took a long time due to its interdisciplinary nature; “This study is not a classic communication research, but an interdisciplinary work. The work falls into the category of cultural studies due to the socio-psychological topics it contains, such as urban space, architecture, media criticism, and self. This book will provide great insights for those curious about the field, especially sociology students, social psychology students, and psychology students. Because the book specifically examines many psychological theories, self-theory, identity, the construction of the self, urban space, and the transformation of urban space. For example, in the work, we describe Istanbul's urban transformation and the individuals living within it. Furthermore, the work was professionally prepared with the aim of offering this knowledge as a reference book to university students.” he said.
“In the Work, Reality Shows Are Not Treated Solely as Popular Culture Products”
Tutar stated that his work ‘Dynamics of Daily Life on Television’ provides a broad contribution to the literature by analyzing reality programs multi-dimensionally, beyond merely treating them as popular culture products. Tutar; “The uniqueness of this study is not merely to approach reality programs within a mass communication theory and solely as a television program, a product of popular culture, but to evaluate them beyond that. Reality shows are a socio-psychic social phenomenon with a multi-dimensional structure. This segmented structure needs to be analyzed. After completing my doctoral thesis and until the book emerged, I separated this multi-dimensional structure into sections, for example; I made publications, wrote articles, and presented papers specifically on competition programs and crime programs. One of these was published as a book chapter in the Sociology department of Istanbul University.” he stated.
“Dynamics of Daily Life on Television,” which boasts content that will satisfy readers in the field of reality shows, serves as a guiding work for both those interested in the subject and researchers working in this area. This multidisciplinary work, which approaches the field of reality shows with a completely different perspective in world literature, awaits its readers on the shelves.