Analysis of the changing housing discourse in Istanbul over advertisements from Early Republican Period to present

From prehistoric times to present, mankind has been searching for a place where he can feel safe, protect himself from environmental and climatic conditions and rescue his life. Along with the economic, political and cultural changes in society over time, this search goes beyond the need for sheltering and housing space has become a consumption item, that determines the social status and lifestyle of the individual. Undoubtedly, advertisements that manipulate the consumer masses with slogans and surrealistic images, have a big share in this situation. Beyond their role of being a meaning structure that aim to make a demand for a product, advertisements are cultural texts that give clues about the political, economic and social structure of the period and reflects the values of societies. In this context, the main purpose of the thesis is to read the changes in housing through advertising discourses and to investigate the types of housing production that are shaped in the direction of differentiated demands. As the study area, Istanbul was chosen which has been the scene of the most dramatic changes both in the urban and social contexts. The concept of housing in Turkey has started to break away from its traditional context since the late nineteenth century and urban space has entered into an important transformation process. The westernization movements that started with Tanzimat were accelerated with the Republic period and the changes in political and social life were also seen in the urban space. The process that started with the newly developed construction techniques and the participation of the apartment as a "modern living representation" in the urban space, have been the beginning of the change in Istanbul city morphology. In this period, in order to increase their deposits, banks arranged draws for account holders, by this way they brought the concept of "lottery houses" to the housing literature. The advertisements of the lottery houses published in newspapers and magazines, are the first examples of the presentation of the house as a product in the media environment. Also, discourses used in these advertisements, are informative about the economic, political and cultural structure of this period. After 1950, the pace of industrialization, the formation of new employment areas, and the migration from rural to urban, led to an increase in the population of the city and thus to the inadequacy of housing stocks. Moreover, because of the problems such as capital accumulation and inadequacy of private and public resources, housing production has become a serious issue. In order to find solutions to the problems that have been experienced, urban space has become the scene of interventions, both by private initiatives and by government. The property ownership law, which resolve the problem of sole ownership right over the single parcel and the credit lending to the buyers of Emlak Kredi Bank are important developments of this period. On the other hand, another important development in this period is the emergence of cooperatives as a new housing presentation. In parallel with all these developments, the housing advertisements which were published in the media increased and the advertising discourses were structured in this direction. 1980's period indicates a new turning point for Turkey. Especially with the passing of the economy to the neoliberal form, a new era began in the understanding of consumption. New discourses emerging with the phenomenon of globalization, political-economic issues and social classes evolving with these effects have led to the emergence of new residential areas in the periphery of the city, designed for individuals who have similar social and cultural background. This has provided special and sterile lives in the shadow of concepts such as status, luxury, comfort that the new rich have dreamed of. The spatial composition of the neoliberal period has become more hierarchical compared to the previous periods and social groupings have begun to become readable through the urban space The advertisement texts which had new discourses such as "different", "special", "prestige" and "secure", played an important role in deepening the social disintegrations by encouraging the principle of departing from the rest of the city. These advertisements, which are an important part of the cultural elitism discourse within the society, are separated from the housing advertisements in previous periods by the images and texts they contain. In this context, analyzes of the advertisements are important in terms of reading the social and urban transformations, which was lived before and after the globalization period and neoliberal politics, through the advertisement discourses. 2000's can be considered as a period in which the city center is rediscovered. Although the escape from the city center, which had lived in the previous period, continued in a certain way, individualization in the social structure and changing of the family structure brought about the idea of living in the city center again. Especially, with high residence buildings that offer hotel comfort, an important transformation has started in the city center. On the other hand, 2000's were a new period in which social opposition was shaped through different groups. In this period, conservative discourses have intensified and collective actions have left their places to groupings. The influence of government policies and the political structure of the period have been important facts for people's requirements of creating limited private areas and living as particular groups. Groupings in the social structure have also manifested itself in residential spaces and housing advertisements have begun to be presented with appropriate conservatism. The socio-political discourses have now been added to the advertising messages that were previously designed according to social status, elitism and wealth. The solutions to be made in this respect will gain importance in terms of the evaluation of the new discourses. In order to read the changing housing discourses periodically, determining the historical breakpoints is extremely important for the study. In this context, the data obtained in the analysis section were paraphrased as Early Republican Period, 1950-1980 Period, 1980-2000 Period and Post-2000 Period. Therefore, a systematic infrastructure has been provided to analyze the meaning and ideologies of housing advertisements that have changed historically with the influence of the dominant social and economic conditions of the period they were in, and to analyze how the discourse used in advertisements varies from past to present. In the research, content analysis method has been applied, which is one of the most preferred methods in communication studies, to determine how the housing advertisements in Turkey are structured in terms of content in the historical process. In this context, for every period, advertisements were analyzed according to their discourses as; architecture oriented discourses, location-transportation oriented discourses, social and cultural advantages oriented discourses, abstract discourses, safety oriented discourses, technical and infrastructure oriented discourses and sales-payment-investment oriented discourses. The results were considered in accordance with every period's conditions. In this context, analyzes based on advertisements are important in terms of determining the changing advertising discourses and explaining the social and spatial transformations that took place before and after the globalization period. When the limited academic works are taken into account about this subject, the importance of this research is better to understood.