Primary School Pupils’ Attitude Towards Violence in the TV Serial: Arka Sokaklar

ABSTRACT: The study seeks to explore violence in Arka Sokaklar (Back Streets) serial on children. The aforementioned serial is a detective serial and is very popular both in Turkey and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. It is on the air in a national channel in Turkey. Old episodes are during the weekdays; yet new episodes are on Saturday nights. Arka Sokaklar serial started to be broadcasted in 2006 and managed to be still on up to today. It is a detective serial that presents a different part of every life. In the detective serials there is certain amount of elements of violence present. Despite other studies that investigate the influence of televison on children, the present study seeks to explore attitudes of primary school pupils towards violence they are exposed on television. The study is a quantitative study. Inhouse questionnaire is prepared and applied in the state primary schools that are in Famagusta region. SPSS 18 programme has been used in the analysis of data. Reliability of the questionnaire is found 0.9774. According to the survey results, it has been found out that primary school pupils watch the television at least 1-2 hours a day. Also statistically significant relationship has been observed between the amount of time pupils spend on watching television and success in their courses. The results of the study indicate that children have difficulty in differentiating between fact and fiction. Keywords: Children, television, serials, violence, detective story, learning from television. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………