A media analysis in Turkey on the theory of simulation by Jean Baudrillard (2010 - 2012)

The study explores how media creates its hegemony in contemporary world. At this level, it focuses on understanding media in Turkey in the frame of Jean Baudrillard's simulation theory. It specifically studies the television media and its reflections through the analysis of particular television programmes such as Survivor and marriage programmes. In the study, the quantitative data were obtained through questionnaires conducted with 127 Survivor viewers. Besides, 10 Survivor viewers were interviewed to find out if imageries in Survivor programme are cultivated thereby revealing the extent of television media's impact in human perception. Apart from that, a questionnaire conducted with 2727 participants was made use of to know the general attitude towards media especially by referring to the considerations on marriage programmes. Furthermore, in the study, 5 episodes of Survivor from 2010, 2011 and 2012 seasons and 1 episode from a marriage programme (Esra Erol'la Evlen Benimle) broadcasted in 2012 are discussed with the methods of content and discourse analysis as well. From the results revealed via questionnaires, interview, discourse and content analysis, it could be inferred that by the intrusion of the television media, human perception is reformulated being detached from the previously experienced praxis and as a result of it, conscious is entrapped in the hyperreal condition. The dissertation deals with that media imagery is reflected neither in the opposite nor in the similar form of its first referential meaning, yet being left in its anti-form undescriptive. Keywords: simulation, hyper-reality, media, television, entertainment, communication.