Construction of childhood in TRT indigenous child programs

The idea of childhood has occured with the acqusition a social quality of child that exists in each period. This idea is a product of Modernism, and childhood has begun to take shape in the West through this theory of society. While the rise of electronic age with the development of technology is pointing to a postmodern era; childhood has also entered a new period. The media that constructs and reproduces society constitutes not just adults but the society of the future, too. For this purpose, social transformation is gaining momentum especially in television programs. In this study, we examined the process of childhood building of TRT (Turkish Radio and Television Corporation), the official broadcasting institution of the Republic of Turkey. The data of this study consist of the discourses in the programs. These discourses were obtained by the technique of watching and listening. In our research, it was based on indigenous TRT child programs, which were presented to the children in 1970 and 2000. These programs were selected by considering socialization, education, policy, violence-fear, consumption, other living things and children's rights-othering themes. The universe consists of 581 programs and the sample consists of 74 programs. The transformation of childhood into society, politics, consumption, otherness, violence and other living things themes has been analyzed through the TRT indigenous programs and the childhood has been constructed within the frame of traditional, modern and postmodern social theories. As a result, breaks and ruptures in the themes of the thesis work on the construction of the child in the TRT children's programs support the social transformation in Turkey. Key words: Modern and Postmodern Childhood, TRT Child Programs