Mafia serials as a popular vulture product: Kurtlar Vadisi case

Popular culture has been begun to be formed with urban life. Popular cultureproducts are easily accessible, cheaply acquised and produced and consumednumerously. They also become widespread by means of mass communicationvehicles. So these products are dissolved in mass culture. Mass culture and popularculture concepts usually substitutes each other because of this relationship that takeplace between them.Characteristics of popular culture are best reflected in television. Televisionplays an important role in reproduction of dominant values with the help of its uniqueexpression forms. Television uses serials, one of the peculiar expression forms, whileit is producing its message. Serial types and numbers were increased and contentsof serials changed in Turkey after private television channels had entered thebroadcasting life. Cultural and social components which take place in daily life aremore used in these serials. After Susurluk accident which occurred in 1996, mafia-state relations have been examined in television serials. Subject of this study isKurtlar Vadisi, a serial that took up mafia-state relations. How nationalism andviolence are presented with the popular culture point of view and their relations withthe values which reinforce status quo are explained in this sensational serial context.Categories of violence and nationalism are considered as visual and verbal and arestudied with content analysis.