Satellite Television and its Discontents: Reflections on the Experiences of Turkish-Australian Lives

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Notes

[1] TRT is the acronym for Turkish Radio Television, the Turkish public broadcasting service.

[2] The first Director-General of TRT, Adnan Oztrak, was able to emphasize the cultural and educational ends of the public broadcasting service, by paraphrasing the broadcasting principles: ‘We are obliged to use this powerful medium in order to advance the revolutions of Ataturk which aimed to carry the Turkish Nation to the level of contemporary civilisation as well as promoting the world view and life styles which were brought about by them.’

[3] Magic Box began test broadcasting on 1 March 1990 via the Eutelsat Satellite, and in May 1990 it started broadcasting five hours a day.

[4] The free movement of ideas, capital and goods became the motto and was successfully mobilized to this end by Motherland Party governments under the leadership of Turgut Ozal, who was involved in the structural adjustment programme during the 1980s and the early 1990s first as chief economic adviser and then prime minister and the president. His contribution was significant in many ways, so much so that the period was termed the ‘Ozal decade’.

[5] Auburn is a Suburb of Sydney which is highly populated by Turkish migrants.

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Gokcen Karanfil

Gokcen Karanfil is a PhD candidate in the Centre for Cross-cultural Research at Australian National University. His PhD research has been focused on identity construction and negotiation of the Turkish diaspora in Australia and their media use. Gokcen's broader research interests range across transnationalism, nationalism, diaspora studies, media studies and identity politics.