Transnational Media and Transnational Movements in the constitution of Turkish Islam in

Germany. The case of Samanyolu TV Avrupa

Introduction
The proposed area of doctoral research responds to those recent theories of globalization,
media and culture that suggest todays world is witnessing the emergence of a new media order
that has radically transformed notions of geographical and national borders through addressing a
transnational audience. The aim of the research is to evaluate the potential and multiple affects of
this new media order in the transformation of monolithic belongings, such as national identities or
cultures, and examine the ways in which this new media order can forge new diasporic
experiences and form new hybrid and post-national cultures among immigrants. The proposed
research seeks to determine the constitutive role of the transnational media activities of the
satellite channel Samanyolu TV Avrupa in the interpellation of new diasporic experiences and
cultures among Turkish immigrants in Germany.
In addressing these issues, the doctoral research will investigate the transnational project of the
transnational Islamist Gulen movement through an analysis of the role and impact of the satellite
channel Samanyolu TV Avrupa on its audience. To analyze the effect(s) of the channel on its

audiences socio-cultural identity and with reference to religious and ideological tenets of
the movement, the research methodogically will adopt a multi-sided approach to the
problem and employ qualitative and ethnographic research methods.
Research Subject
Recent studies on globalisation, media and culture have demonstrated that the
globalization process paved the way for the emergence of a new post-national media order within
which new local and regional media productions not only transform geographic, national and
cultural borders but also strongly affect the formation of new cultural identities by seeking and
imagining a transnational audience. This novel media form has become an important factor in
terms of influencing the ways within which the lives of migrants are experienced around the world.
Furthermore, it has turned into a highly effective and significant apparatus for mobilizing diasporas.
Therefore many national, ethnic and religious groups have begun to resort to this new media form
to shape and utilise diasporas for political, ideological and religious purposes. This research
proposes to reveal how this new media form is resorted to by a religiously-oriented movement with
its origins in Turkey; the Gulen movement, which aims to form a transnational Turkish Muslim
community that embraces a combination of modern scientific thought as well as religious devotion.
The research intends to analyse the transnational media activities of this movement by focusing on
the satellite channel Samanyolu TV Avrupa (Milky Way Europe) as a Gulen movement media
enterprise in the constitution of Turkish Muslim-ness in Germany. In doing so, the research aims to
demonstrate how the Gulen movement imagines its receiving community in Germany through
Samanyolu TV and, secondly, how this media outlet shapes the self-perceptions of the movement
amongst its own members in Germany. Finally, the research will elaborate whether Samanyolu TV
Avrupa as a satellite channel of a transnational movement produces a coherent, homogenous
diasporic identity and culture with reference to common cultural and religious symbols and values
which together constitute a sense of Turkish Muslim-ness among the members of the Gulen
movement in Germany, or whether it leads to a fracturing and hybridity in the interpretation of the
idea of Turkish Muslim-ness amongst the Turkish-German diaspora.
Theoretical Framework
Contrary to early grand social and cultural theories, globalization reconfigures current social and
political conditions in a multi-directional character which goes well beyond Westernisation and

cultural homogenisation and indeed is often a source of revitalised particularism and differentiation.
Transnational media lies at the centre of these trends and also plays a prominent role in the
interplay between the local and the global and the appearance of a new globalized media order
within which new local and regional media productions currently challenge Western cultural
hegemony. While these new alternative media productions strongly appear to affect the formation
of traditional identities and cultures, they also reshape diasporic experiences. In particular, recent
media developments have seen the transnational targeting of particular ethnic, national or religious
communities around the world and thus a new form of diasporic television has emerged. The
proposed project follows from this strand of theoretical framework and approaches Samanyolu TV
Avrupa as such an example of an Islamic-oriented Glen-movement media enterprise.
Considering that the Gulen movement has recently turned into a transnational phenomenon
with the objective of forming a world Turkish Muslim community on the basis of modern, scientific
thought coupled with religious devotion, it constitutes a type of community consisting of members
strongly committed to the movement which exhibits an internal cohesion based around an identity
that has been formed through the ideological foundations of the movement. Therefore, Samanyolu
TV Avrupa as a satellite channel, which targets those members of the Turkish diaspora in Europe
who are adherents to the Glen Movement holds the potential to disclose how new patterns of
diasporic experiences are given shape by this particular transnational satellite channel. The main
assumption of the proposed research is that focusing on Samanyolu TV Avrupas imagined
audience in Germany where the largest Turkish immigrant community is located has much to tell
about how the new form of transnational existences are produced in the phase of globalization.
State of the art
A rich and growing academic literature exists on the interaction between globalization,
diasporas and media in different disciplines, e.g. Hassanpour (2003), Karim (1998), Robins (1998),
Sinclair (1997), (Vertovec 2001). Studies concerned with Turkish transnational TV and radio
channels and Turkish diaspora have also recently begun to be published. Some literature has
analyzed the activities of Turkish transnational satellite channels from different perspectives, e.g.
Aksoy and Robins (1997; 2000; 2003; 2006); others have analyzed the media consumption
behaviour of Turkish immigrants in France, the United Kingdom and Germany from a comparative
perspective; alar (2002) analyzed the political economy of Turkish transnational satellite
channels in Europe, whilst Ogan (2001) discussed the interaction between transnational media and
Turkish immigrants who live in Amsterdam, and Karanfil (2007; 2009) researched the ways in
which Turkish transnational satellite channels affect the cultural transformation of Turks in
Australia. More relevant to this research proposal is Kosnicks (2007) important study of media and
cultural identities amongst Turkish migrants in Germany.
However, there is a gap in the existing research literature on the activities of those Turkish
satellite channels that are media enterprises of a religiously-oriented transnational Turkish
movement and the distinctive features that these religious elements bring to bear on the
audiences self-perceptions of their own Turkish identity. It is anticipated that the proposed
research would add significantly to the literature by considering the religious element of new
transnational media outlets, something which has been omitted by existing major works. The
research aims to reveal how a religiously-inspired transnational movement which possesses a
distinctive world view has formed/attempts to form a collective consciousness and identity of
transnational Turkish-ness and its socio-cultural reflections amongst the German Turks through a
novel media form.
Research Questions
Although at the simplest level, the interaction between transnational media and diasporas can

be perceived as a process of production and consumption, the nature of the process is much more
complicated in terms of the ways diasporic subjects are imagined by the media producers and how
their message is received by consumers. Based on these observations, the proposed research will
focus on the following questions:
1. How does the Glen movement imagine its audience in Germany through Samanyolu TV?
2. How does the target group absorb the messages of the movement and in what ways
express them in the host country?
3. How in turn affect these interactions the formation of self perceptions, identities, and
cultures of members of the movement in Germany?
4. The project finally aims to analyze whether the transnational media activities of Samanyolu
TV Avrupa in Germany is forging an introverted diasporic culture that distances itself from
the culture of the host society.
In pursuing these objectives, the research will also analyze the context and the content of
the broadcasting of Samanyolu TV Avrupa. Following this, approaching media not merely as a
reflexive sphere but as a mechanism which significantly contributes to and is an integral part of the
formulation of the cultural spaces within which it is being consumed, the research aims to analyze
the cultural formation of the Glen Movement members through Samanyolu TV Avrupa in
Germany.
Methods and sources:
Taking into account not only the intricacy of a social process such as migration but also
conducting social research in a transnational setting, this research will take a multi-sited approach
to scrutinize the relationship between Samanyolu TV and its imagined audience in Germany. The
proposed research will require a methodology composed of several elements: literature review,
institutional analysis of Samanyolu TV Avrupa in Germany, ethnographic field work combined with
participant observation and unstructured in-depth interviews.

Critical Engagement with Existing Literature: A comprehensive and critical literature review
of the cognate fields of media, globalization, migration, diasporas and cultures, will be followed by
a review of work in contemporary anthropology and media theory. Engaging with the secondary
literature in the above mentioned disciplines will enable the proposed research both to
comprehend the theories of globalisation, transnational media, migration and identity and to
formulate a theoretical perspective whilst interpreting and analyzing the findings of the research.
Institutional Analysis of Samanyolu TV Avrupa: This type of analysis would include
questioning the policies, incentives, motivations, expectations and intentions of Samanyolu TV
Avrupa in Germany with the aim of establishing patterns of media ownership as well as the
editorial orientation of the channel. In this respect, this research proposes to examine institutional
websites, brochures, broadcast streamings of the channel and analyze the established links
between Samanyolu TV Avrupa and business sectors in Germany, as well as the link it shares with
the Glen movement. To accomplish this, in depth-interviews will be conducted with media
executives of Samanyolu Avrupa TV in Offenbach.
These interviews and the secondary-data collection process will focus on topics such as:

a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

Media production policies of Samanyolu TV Avrupa in Germany.

The content of the programs chosen.
The kinds of the programs chosen by Samanyolu TV Avrupa.
The companies that advertise on the channel.
The amount and content of the programmes specifically directed towards the Glen movement
members.

Analysis of the context and content of Samanyolu TV Avrupa

In addition to disclosing ownership patterns of a media, its content is also critical for a better
understanding of the rationale of an institution in broadcasting transnationally. Thus, an inquiry into
the content of Samanyolu TV Avrupa is expected to provide an indication of the intended effects of
the programs and the groups targeted amongst the Turkish diaspora in Germany. At this juncture,
the project proposes to conduct content analysis on Samanyolu TV Avrupa broadcasts. Through
conducting a content analysis this research will focus on:
a. The general content of the Samanyolu Avrupa TV programs (music, news, religious
commentary)
b. The particular ideological content of the programs. (Issues introduced and discussed, issues
neglected).
c. The religious, ethnic, national, and political content of Samanyolu TV Avrupa broadcasts.
d. The percentage of the programmes that specifically target the Glen community in
Germany.
The research will focus on language used, themes employed, and the agendas being set by
Samanyolu TV Avrupa. The rationale of this type of analysis will be to reveal the relation between
the broadcast and the philosophy of the owners of the channel, in addition to unravelling the ways
in which the target group is conceived and actively constructed by Samanyolu TV Avrupa.
Ethnographic Field Work- Participant Observation and Unstructured-In-depth Interviews

In order to observe and examine the reflections of Samanyolu TV Avrupa on its

audiences socio-cultural practices and to elaborate how these reflections enter into the
everyday life of them, the proposed research will undertake an ethnographic field work,
which will nearly proceed during nine months. Considering that Germany is a new site for
the researcher and initiation of the ethnographic field may take longer time than expected,
the researcher will utilize his existing networks and contacts with the Gulen Movement in
Germany. 1
Thus the often slow process of initiating fieldwork will be speeded up. The initial site
for the fieldwork will be the cities of Frankfurt and Cologne where the various Gulen
inspired organizations locate. Ethnographic field work in these sites will function both to
identify Samanyolu TV audience and observe the everyday practices of the identified
audience, which will provide critical insights into the meanings of Turkish-ness and Muslimness among the Samanyolu TV Avrupa audience in a transnational context (Germany).
Following this, in order to forge close relationships with the identified sample and to draw
conclusions from the channels effect on the selected audience, participant observation will be
carried out among them. The researcher will participate in different cultural events including
cultural, national and religious celebrations. Finally, by employing unstructured in-depth interviews,

1 The researcher is neither a member of the movement nor devoted to the movement.
The researcher will only utilize established networks and contacts for the initiation and
smooth progress of the research Considering the religious and ideological dimensions of
the proposed research, the researcher hereby confirms that research ethics and scientific
considerations will be strictly adhered to throughout the whole research.
4

the researcher will attempt to analyze how the audiences of Samanyolu TV Avrupa interpret the
nature of the channels content and impact on them as members of the Glen community and the
Turkish diaspora in Germany.
Provisional Work Plan
It is planned for this research to be completed in a period of 36 months. The project will commence
in October 2013, and will be finalized in September 2016.
Stage I (8 Months/October 2013- May 2014
Critical engagement with the literature concerning the topics of:
1- Globalization.
2- Transnational media flows.
3- Ethnography of the Turkish diaspora in Germany.
4- The politics of media production and distribution patterns in Turkey and Germany.
5- The impact of homeland politics on diasporas.
6- The political and religious importance of diasporas.

Stage II (5Months/ June 2014- November 2014)

1. Carrying out institutional analysis.
2. Critical engagement with media texts from Samanyolu TV Avrupa Broadcast.
3. Carrying out content analysis.
4. Identifying interviewees from amongst media employees.
5. Arranging appointments with interviewees.
6. Conducting interviews with media executives of Samanyolu TV Avrupa in Offenbach.

Stage III (9 Months/December 2014-July 2015)

1- Initiating fieldwork.

2-

Conducting participant observation with the members of the Gulen movement in Cologne.

3-

Identification of sample.

4-

Conducting unstructured in-depth interviews with the sample.

5-

Transcribing interviews

Stage IV (5 Months/ August 2015 / December 2015)

1- Analyzing the data gathered
2- Initiating the writing up of the thesis

Stage V (11 Months/ January 2015- October 2016

1-Finalising writing up of the thesis

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