IDENTITIES AND LIFESTYLES IN THE AGE OF MEDIATISATION: AN APPROACH OF UNIVERSAL PRAGMATICS FOR COMPERATIVE ANALYSIS OF MAGAZINE PAGES FROM USA AND TURKEY

Abstract

As the communication apparatus of modern system, mass media is still determinative for forming and disseminating life-styles. Since the emergence of welfare societies, presentation of life-styles in media has been considered as a tool to make use of working masses' leisure to gain profit and consent. However, from the viewpoint of critical theory, situation is more complex, relating to every aspects of modern life and shaping the ways of socialisation worldwide. The theoretical approach can be offered as a frame for utilizing pragmatics which has been used relatively rare in media studies. Based on this approach, any selected texts or the meanings of texts are not significant, unless they are connected to actions in the society. Therefore, the subject of consideration should be the arguments to be presented to individuals prior to personal actions. To transfer the focus of analyse from the texts to the arguments and to the persuasion, as a linguistic and cognitive process experienced in social level, thematic units in media texts were identified and counted. These groups of symbols or words are the units motivating individuals to choose consumption agendas or life-styles. The method of analysis in this essay had been offered in a former essay of the author, in a theoretical level. In this study, the application of method was demonstrated on magazine contents. Along with the application, theoretical approach has been modified with the help of the author's doctoral thesis, as the theory of critical media literacy. The essay's problem is the examination of magazine contents as argumentation units of instrumentalist system. Accommodating instrumental rationality within the mediated communication, similar journalistic codes can be adopted by media organizations in different countries. Therefore, in the context of globalization, celebrities page of CNN news site from USA and magazine page (Kelebek) of Hurriyet news site from Turkey were analysed. These sites could be approved for any studies because of their outstanding roles in monopolistic media groups. In addition to this, CNN has a global recognition due to the central position of USA for the system. In this case, magazine content themes, which use to construct schemas of perception and coverage at all, has been analysed as indicators of a global process persisting from the centre to the periphery. Results supported such a common process with some local differences. The method of the study can be considered a tool to describe mediatisation as a global process.