The public function of the cinema places and it's distribution in the Istanbul city

Since the beginning of the cinema, the cinema places has been an important feature in the city life of individuals and in the history of society. In the modern urban life where people reach a new way of life, the activity of going to cinema and the cinema halls as urban spaces, has an important role in the daily life of the people. Since ancient times, cinema has been seen as a modern activity where people share a common interest in a social common space and spent time in leisure or productive. Beyond being just places to watch movies, they are the places where one can build a common meaning with others in social life. Going to cinema should be considered an experience, an element of socialization as well as being a fun or leisure activity. The person who goes to cinema, experiences the place itself and the city before the movie, during the movie and after the movie. It is possible to discuss the physical character of the cinema space, its position and location in the city and also its sociological dimension. In the past, the cinema place has gone through many stages before they became an important component of the city's social and urban culture. Due to the prohibition of depictions in the Islamic religion, there was a period of opposing the cinema in the Ottoman Empire. In Europe it was subjected to class separation issues. Also it is perceived as a danger for its possibility to influence the masses and change their thoughts in Europe and America. Although cinema place is not discussed very frequently in literature, researches shows that cinema space can be discussed through many themes. The position of the cinema space in public space debates is the main subject of this thesis. In addition to the discussion of public sphere, the role of cinema in the social life and its effects on the city are examined. Cinema venues are one of the most significant entertainment and social places of the city in history. In the past, the cinema places where has access from the street, are considered to be the meeting places of the neighborhood in Turkey. That situation of the cinema places became different today. The current state of cinema halls is mostly located in shopping malls. This shows that the focus of entertainment in urban life is shifting from cinema places to shopping malls. Cinema places are among the entertainment venues of the community. The activity of going to cinema, which is a part of the entertainment culture, should be evaluated in terms of location choice and accessibility. In the literature, the relationship between the location of the cinema spaces and memory has been discussed. Cinema's involvement with memory is not only visually or narratively, but also through the creation of a memory space through cinema halls where films are shown. In this case, the location of cinema halls are important in social memory. Cinema halls have become places where they can change the character of their location. Beyoğlu district in Istanbul is the birthplace of the cinema and it has gained its identify with cinema halls. The development of cinema culture in the city takes place quite fast. With the development of the city it is an inevitable occurence of spatial differences in urban public spaces. The changing ciy life is reflected in the supply and demands of the society.With the growth of technology, the daily lives and expectations of the individuals have become different, and this differentiation has also appered in spatial arrangements. These spatial differentiations are also reflected in cinema halls. The cinemas in singular stuctures and in certain regions are spread throughout the city today. The cinema halls which had a fall with the invention of television, have moved to a new dimension with the development of technology, globalization and multiplex cinema halls in shopping centers. The purpose of this research is to discuss the publicity of cinema halls which have a significant place in urban public spaces .While discussing the public space arguments of cinema halls, the role of cinema places in the city of İstanbul in the past and present has been studied. The cinema venues are changing today as far as their historical functions concerned. Today, the change in human lifestyles and the mass urbanization leads to the development of technology and the change of public space. Cinema places are also affected by this change. This effect has changed the concept of cinema place and the past role of going to cinema. The public function of early silent cinema has been mentioned in some articles of Miriam Hansen (1983). In addition, Oscar Negt and Alexander Kluge's (1993) studies of public space include cinema places. The book titled "Towards a Sociology of the Cinema" by Ian Jarvie (1970) is the first debate on the concept of socialization in the cinema place. Lakshmi Srinivas (2009) has studied on Indian Cinema and discussed the role of cinema in urban life and its effects to cities. In order to discuss the publicity and the changing function of the cinema place, firstly the position of the cinema in the social perception and urban culture was studied. In this section, the invention of the cinema, different forms of cinema place and its feature in the life of the city were investigated. Later on, in the section of the development of the cinema places in the city, the location of the cinema halls in İstanbul determined using the formal records of İstanbul Chamber of Commerce. As a result of these records, the distribution of the cinema halls according to the districts and the total number of cinema places in the province of Istanbul have been reached. According to these addresses in these records, a mapping was made and the range in the city was visualized. In the end of this research section, it is seen in which districts the cinema halls are centred. In this way of research, it is aimed to reveal the urban development of the cinema places. Finally, the public space concept discussed in exclusive of cinema halls which is the main research of the thesis. In the next section, which is constituted the thesis's original study, interviews have done with six people who have an important position in the cinema sector. In these interviews, the role of cinema places in the past and present and the effects of where they placed in the city are discussed. To evaluate and conclude the interviews a content analysis method was used. In the original part of the study interview findings are analyzed. The role of cinema place in the past and present, its function in publicity have been discussed and interviewed. After the interviews a content analysis method was used to investigate the interviews in an analytical way. In the content analysis the titles which have been associated with the public space were acquired. These titles have been obtained from the literature and the theoretical framework. The titles are; class differences, accessibility, cinema experience and ritual, change of cinema place, diversity and different types in cinema culture, socialization and cinema's effect on the city. These titles associate with concept codes of public space and the codes of time. Then the relation of the location of the cinema halls which is another research topic of the thesis is analyzed and correlated with the titles of public space and function. Thus, the topics studied in the literature review part are tested in the original part of the thesis. The role of cinema places in the past and today, and its effects to the city which is the research question of this thesis has resulted with the interviews and the content analysis of these interviews. The cinema place which is seen as a socialization and experience place in the past, has now changed with the differentiation of lifestyles. The most important reason for this change in function of cinemas is the differentiation of human life and urban public spaces. With techonology and shopping mall concepts cinema places become no longer a socialization space like the old times but answers the experience of movie watching and todays entertainment culture in a different way.