The role of media in transmitting oral culture: The example of Gönül Mountain series

In the collective memory of a nation, there are elements that reflect, describe and hold it together. These elements constitute social culture. Culture has preserved and maintained its existence by changing, transforming and updating both orally and in writing at every stage of history. Oral culture constitutes a large part of collective memory. Oral culture occupies a larger place in the life and consciousness of a society than written culture. This culture that forms the collective memory is also called folklore. With the development and introduction of technology into human life, written and oral culture has been produced in a new context with sound, image and scenario in the cinema environment. Especially in the 21st century, the media, which has become one of the basic building blocks of human life, has become the carrier of culture. Being in a carrier position, the media has entered into a close relationship with culture. In order to determine the way the changing and updated culture takes place in the media environment, the series "Gönül Dağı", which started broadcasting on TRT 1 channel on October 17, 2020, will be examined. The aim of the study is to identify the oral culture products in the Gönül Dağı series and to explain the role of television in the transfer of these elements to future generations and to bring the importance of the secondary cultural environment to the field of folklore. The reason why the series "Gönül Dağı" was chosen for the analysis is that it contains rich cultural elements of Turkish folk traditions and customs, beliefs and lifestyles. This study is important in terms of explaining the way cultural elements, which are rapidly influenced by technology, are reflected in television series. In terms of folklore, the number of academic studies such as articles, theses and books on the transfer of culture through cinema is limited. For this reason, it is aimed to add a new link to the studies to be done on this subject and to contribute to the enrichment of the studies.