Mass Culture and Television: Quiz and Game Shows on TV Channels of Turkey, Lost Cultural Identities

Abstract

In the latest years, the number of quiz and game shows aired on Turkish TV channels has increased significantly. These
shows serve as a shelter where people can escape from the disturbing pressure of their daily realities. The values and structures of
these programs derive from certain facets of the capitalist ideology and feed it, encouraging the greed and the competitive individual
inherent in capitalism. People participating in certain game shows are scored according to what they know. The capital of the game show
is the knowledge which functions in the same way as money. Here, knowledge is like the capital of the manufacturing process. It is not to
the benefit of the society but solely to the person participating in the quiz show. In addition to this, what’s actually valuable and important
in the game shows is the way knowledge is used, not the knowledge itself. The contestants are from low social and economic levels. In
the same manner, the viewers at the studio directed to applause constantly. On the other hand, the viewers in front of the TV forget the
barbarity and the resentments of day to day life by spending their time in front of an empty and unnecessary game show. What can
these people acting as spectators do instead? For instance, as citizens, they may prefer to watch other TV programs by which they may
achieve greater consciousness of their rights and responsibilities. This way our hopes, culture and identity bygone in this ‘happy idiots”
society. The understanding resulting from such polarity causes issues to be taken out of the context of social and historical complexities
and be profiled simplistically. Quiz shows, which are examples of mass culture, are also tools for ideological canalization and
exploitation. These programs confirm the faith of the masses in the system and integrate them into it. Attempting to study the quiz show
and game show such as “Who Wants to be a Millionaire ?" or “Will You Marry Me ?” with a theoretical approach as well as an empirical
method, taking the idea that such shows aired on Turkish TV channels are a tool of cultural imperialism and that they serve the settling
down of the consumer society.