Reflections of media use in cultural integration process of post-Soviet immigrants in Turkey

This research investigated the impact of traditional and new media usage trends of Post-Soviet immigrants in Turkey on the cultural integration process. The research employed a Concurrent/Parallel Convergent model of mixed research methodology. The data was collected since May to July 2017 from Azerbaijanis, Russians and Turkmen people, who form the majority among Post-Soviet immigrants in Turkey. 219 people took part in the survey, while 30 people were interviewed. According to the research findings Post-Soviet immigrants in Turkey use both traditional and new media in the cultural integration process for different purposes and in different contexts. However, in the use of local and Post-Soviet traditional media, Azerbaijanis are ahead of Russians, while in terms of using new media, Russians are more active than Azerbaijanis. Concerning media usage purposes, although Azerbaijanis are more inclined to traditional media use for local culture focused purposes than Russians, Russians are far ahead of Azerbaijanis in social interaction with Post-Soviet culture via new media. As a result, both traditional and new media contribute to cultural integration process of Post-Soviet immigrants in Turkey in the transnational context, by helping them to connect with local culture on the on hand and maintain their ties with their own culture on the other hand. In addition, the role of both traditional and new media use is directly related to learning, understanding and solving the local culture.