REFLECTION TASK 5

Why are Turkish soap operas popular among Arabs?

            From the article that has been published on BBC, many views about the Turkish soap operas have been offered us to witness. As this topic of Turkish soaps being sold worldwide keeps on being trendy, many aspects on to the reason why they are so popular emerge from anywhere. These aspects mostly are concerned with what remains behind the question why Arabs are quite attracted to them than any other country. It is highly possible that it occurs in accordance with some certain resemblances such as culture, common aims and so on.

            To start with the first resemblance that was mentioned above, being a country which is also home to many Muslims, Arabs have a common culture with Turkey. So to speak, they happen to come across many similarities on to the topics of daily life in Turkish soap operas. As it was also mentioned in the article on BBC, Turkish soap operas discuss subjects which are rarely talked among Arabs for such sensitive reasons as legal and religious restrictions on women, common view of public on gender equality and men women relations. There is also a reference on this topic in the article.  “’Turkish serials deal with many issues that Arab television is afraid of dealing with such as gender equality, treason and love affairs, and discussing the subject of illegitimate children born outside of marriage,’ says Professor Asli Tunc, head of the Media School at Istanbul Bilgi University. ” (Williams, 2013, BBC News) Therefore, these topics draw Arab’s attention more than they do in western countries since the countries in west areas are less in need of dealing with such subjects because of being improved ideationally.

            Along with cultural resemblances, Arabs also share similar aims with Turkey because they have similar problems in their society. Soap operas’ subjects about the common problems in society arouse curiosity and interest especially in women. They can easily relate to and find a part of themselves in Turkish soap operas. In this case, women in both countries share similar ideas and carry the same hopes while watching these series, seeing Fatmagül raped or watching the Magnificent Suleiman’s harem. Thus, Arab audience of women take more interest in these soap operas than other nationalities. In a way, this also meets the common culture reason.

            Lastly, we can relate the rise of Turkish soap operas in Arab world to Arabs’ timidity and them avoiding using the subjects we have mentioned before in their own series. They tend to abstain from showing much interest in opposite gender relations. In this way, Arab people give much consequence to Turkish series because they get the chance to watch something their producers did not prefer to show before. Furthermore, they get the advantage of watching these series in a similar culture to them.

            To sum up, Turkish soap operas get to be more popular day by day due to sharing common culture, similar aims and catching the chance of watching something they did not come across before.

REFERENCES:

Williams, N. (2013, June 28). The rise of Turkish soap power. Retrieved April 4, 2016, from http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22282563

REFLECTION TASK 4

EFFECTS OF CYBER BULLYING

            The important issue of today’s world concerns is cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is related to all technological devices and social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter or so on. Especially, in recent years many teenagers effect on cyber bullying by means of social media. “In 2013, for example, a spate of suicides was linked to the social network Ask.fm, where users can ask each other questions anonymously.” (Pappas, 2015, Live Science) Stephanie Pappas states in his article. This is an essential issue because social media is used by everyone and generally teenagers commonly. Bullying is happened in primary and high school. Before social media sites were not used quite widely, bullying was limited in school hours and rumours. However, now teenagers can be bullying at any time and sharing information about somebody on account of social media sites. These situations may give rise to depression or suicides between teenagers. When they are looking at their photographs or information on Internet, they fall into depression themselves. They cannot talk to their parents or families because of the fact that they are afraid of losing access the social media sites. In the article, this issue is explained in detailed ways and showed the scientific researches. The author shows us to the information about cyber bullying. He thinks that this is a important topic for everybody and also teenagers do not just use a cyber bullying. I agree with the author because teenagers can use the social media for collect information or communicate with peers or family members. The cyber bullying brings about some serious problems for teenagers in terms of social and academic lives negatively.

            First of all, social life is about living society. For teenagers, the living society is the environment of school generally. The school is the first level of the society actually. Cyber bullying affects them negatively because they can be alienated by their peers. This situation triggers to the depression or suicide. For example, if one student becomes isolated in the school due to cyber bullying or bullying, s/he can think that s/he is lonely all the time in the society. S/he can be embarrassed for her/his appearance, race or religion between her/his friends. In addition, cyber bullying affects teenagers’ relationships with the family members. They cannot share their concerns or problems about bullying with their parents. They may not communicate with their parents effectively. All these situations give rise to becoming isolated to the society and the family.

            Secondly, academic life is started to the high school. This is because the high school grades determine their future. Therefore, the students are responsible for many lectures. At the same time, they have to meet cyber bullying. For instance, the hardworking students who are liked by their lecturers or teachers can be meeting bullying. They are target as a result of their achievement or appearance. The students who are affecting negatively have difficulties for the lectures or grades. They can lose their self-esteem in this way. Under these circumstances, they could go into depression probably. As a consequence, they do not think about their future or career.

            To sum up, cyber bullying has a lot of negative effects and results for teenager’s not only social life but also academic life. The crucial problem is how to prevent bullying in the school actually. The effects of cyber bullying are increasing day by day according to researches. (Pappas, 2015, Live Science) If cyber bullying is not prevented now, much more people affect inescapably in the future.

REFERENCES:

Pappas, S. (2015, June 23). Social Media Cyber Bullying Linked to Teen Depression. Retrieved April 4, 2016, from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article /social-media-cyber-bullying-linked-to-teen-depression/