Workshop on Media Portrayals of Turks in Germany
Our forth workshop was held on June 3 rd , 2009 in Potsdam and brought together representatives of the Turkish community in Germany, representatives from German-Turkish media production, representative from media politics and media scholars working on representation and media with specific focus on the portrayal of Turks in German Media as well as the project team of University Potsdam and University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.
In the workshop participated:
Cicek Bacik (Media and Political Science Scholar, doing her PhD on “ Turkish Television in Germany“, Board Member of Turkish League Berlin Brandenburg)
Nana Heidenreich (Media and Cultural Scholar, Project Leader of arsenal experimental, Member of Kanak Attak),
Burhan Gözüakca (Director of BEYS Marketing & Media GmbH, with focus on Ethno-Marketing ),
Umut Karakas (Director of Opinion Research Centre DATA4U, specialised on surveys in theTurkish community)
Bernd Knopf (Press Officer of the Minister of State in the Federal Chancellery and Federal Government Commissioner for Migration, Refugees, and Integration)
Jenny Krüger (Junior Producer, Provobis Film production company)
Tuncay Kulaoglu ( Dramatic advisor of Ballhaus Naunystr., intercultural arts venue in Berlin)
Ferda Ataman ( Journalist for daily newspapers for example “Der Tagesspiegel” and others, Member of New German Media producers - intercultural network of media producers )
Dr. Werner Trieselmann (Lecturer at Free University of Berlin, Media Arts and Visual Anthropology),
Stefan Wellgraf (Associate Fellow at Center for Metropolitan Studies/ Technical University Berlin)
Franziska Woellert (Berlin Institute for Population and Development, co-worker of integration study: “Unused Potential”)
Simon Vincent (Sound Artist and Performer, lecturer at University of Applied Sciences Potsdam)
The project team was composed of Asst. Prof. Dr. Süheyla Schröder (University of Potsdam), Prof. Dr. Dieter Mersch (University of Potsdam), Prof. Winfried Gerling (University of Applied Sciences Potsdam) and Stefanie Appelius (University of Applied Sciences Potsdam).
The workshop started with a short introduction of the jointed Master's program European Media and Cultural Studies and Media Awareness by the project team and was followed by a brief overview of the research results on Media Portrayals of Turks in Germany by Project Assistant; Stefanie Appelius. Subsequently started the open discussion with the workshop participants on the representation of Turks in German Media and how to overcome bias in these representations. The first issue the participants addressed was the problematic term of “integration” and how to address and represent migrants, who have been born and living in Germany their entire life. Dr. Werner Trieselmann explained that migration is, from the anthropological point of view, a natural phenomenon, which cannot only be regulated by policy makers. Nanna Heidenreich also pointed out, how migration issues are always discussed in a political way and that one must also focus on cultural and social aspects of migration. Ferda Ataman stressed that is important, that Turkish migrants working in media or cultural production etc. are not restricted to migration topics only. Hyphenated identities are more and more common in Germany and should also be treated that way.
Bernd Knopf gave than a short overview of the development of Turkish migrants and Media in Germany and what the Federal Government has done so far, to include Turkish citizens in German society. He also told us about the National Integration Plan. In July 2006 the German Chancellor invited representatives of all social groups working on the issue of integration to take part in the first Integration Summit. Participants were assigned to working groups to discuss how to move forward with the integration of migrants. The underlying principle was to be that of providing support whilst requiring the migrants to do their part. The National Integration Plan strikes new paths and opens up new opportunities for integration of migrants. For the first time, all those, dealing with integration in politics and in society work hand in hand: Federal Government, Federal States, local authorities, migrants, institutions and organizations from science, media, culture, sports, trade and industry, trade unions and religious groups. The Federal Chancellor has presented the results of their work at the second integration summit in July 2007. It was developed with regard to two guidelines. First: in dialogue with migrants – talking with them not about them a nd second, demanding commitment from each participant, because everyone can contribute to the success of integration.
Bernd Knopf also pointed out that the Turkish migrant group is too heterogeneous to address them as one group. But nevertheless the participation of migrants in journalism or media production is still underrepresented and must be improved. Ferda Ataman explained that the structures and formats of the media and media production in Germany hinder the access for Turkish migrants. The selection of young journalists especially in the print media is still very elitist even for Germans and language is the one and only knockout criterion. Form her own experience Ataman stated, that once one has made it into the media production as a German-Turkish journalist, one has to be careful not to be overcritical in ones work on migrant issues.
Bernd Knopf assured on the other hand that an intercultural opening has already happened in all public spheres in Germany. Diversity management is for many companies an economic factor but certain perceptions are only possible because of journalists or co-workers with migrant backgrounds. The specific about the media and especially with film and TV production is the creation of pictures. The visibility of the “otherness” is in no other public sphere as obvious as shown by the media.
Burhan Gözüakca underlined that especially the negative examples of migrants who are not capable of being included in the society are shown and spread by the German media and that it would be helpful for the image of migrants to present more success stories. He also added that there is a lack of self-concept in the handling with migrants. As Nanna Heidenreich declared, migrant history is not part of the official German historiography. Therefore more migrants should work in cultural and media production to improve the knowledge of other cultures within German society. In the past migrants and migrants´ problems were exploited for election campaigns of German parties but nothing changed after election.
Burhan Gözüakca came to speak about his profession and the negative image of Ethno-Marketing. Ethno-Marketing is often blamed for inhibiting integration. But he stressed, that Ethno-Marketing is looking at the cultural idiosyncrasies instead of ignoring the origins of their clients. That is why; Ethno- Marketing has become so successful in the past years. He suggested involving more Germans in migrant media production to raise awareness of the “others”.
Cicek Bacik pointed out, that many migrant journalists are working under very poor conditions. They do not receive an equal salary compared to their German colleagues. She also stated that it is important for migrants to work and publish in their own language. In this coherence she indicated the cooperation between German tabloid newspaper BILD and the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet. This cooperation helped to improve the representation of Turkish migrants, although BILD and Hürriyet are not quality press, commented Ferda Ataman. Burhan Gözüakca gave another example of successful German-Turkish media producers; Radyo Metropol is offering a daylong full service program for German-Turks in Turkish and German language. Gözüakca asserts that addressing the audience with issues they are interested in is more important, than the language in which the programs are produced. He states that the key to a successful integration is information. Cicek Bacik criticized that the topics of German supplements in Turkish newspapers, for example in “Young Hürriyet”, were always not up to date, so the target group of the supplement would not be interested in this kind of media products.
Jenny Krüger explained that the most popular genres in migrant community are Telenovelas, Soaps and TV-series. These are the media products where one can reach the (young) Turkish community, especially because Turks use to watch more often TV than Germans do, how surveys by Umut Karakas prove. One point of critics in the discussion was that media representation always lags behind. But as Prof. Dr. Dieter Mersch argued this is one of the main aspects of cultural processes. They are always recognizable retrospectively. Cultural processes operate by making differences and distinction. So the entire discussion about integration of migrants aims into the wrong direction and mistakable strategies are applied so far. The general problem of the integration debate is, that all cultural and social phenomena become only visibly and therefore describable in the second or third generation of migration. There is also a strong historical conflict between Turkey and Europe, which must also be considered when the discussion comes to the Turkish migrants in Germany.
After a short break the workshop participants came back to the media policy makers and the National Integration Plan of the Federal Government. As Bernd Knopf put it, the National Integration Plan was important to raise awareness and to give impulse in the discussion process but there is still continuing work to be done to receive something like “Media Diversity”. Nanna Heidenreich criticized that to much emphasis is put on production of contents. She suggested to get away from the “contentism” and produce instead what she called “paradox intervention”, which means, (video) artists could for example play with modes of “not showing” instead of representing and raising therefore awareness by working with affects. Other ways of dealing with the diversity must be developed and must make productive.
In the conclusion round of the workshop Burhan Gözüakca stressed that it is really important to strengthen the local media. Topics like Turkish Sports or other themes, which touch the audience emotionally must be represented for Turkish migrants in German media as well. The media products produced in Turkey or by Turkish media outlets in Germany cannot cover the interests of German-Turks. German-Turks are neither accepted by German media and society nor by Turkish and this is why they are not represented in a proper way. Cicek Bacik mentioned that there were plans to establish a German-Turkish culture channel similar to ARTE in the nineties. But nothing happened so far. Ferda Ataman points out that “special interest thinking” is not up to date anymore because a lot of German- Turks from second or third generation consume media products not as a German or a Turk. It is important to her that media awareness is raised already in vocational training. She is not sure, whether a quota regulation similar to the women's quota in the eighties in Germany would help to overcome the stereotyped thinking and open up jobs for migrants in the media.
Bernd Knopf added that the German Press Agency (dpa) is one of the first press agencies, who has developed a special offer with agency news on German-Turkish topics. Ferda Ataman reported that “The New German Media producers”, a network of intercultural journalist, feel the need to discuss about definition and how to call migrants in the future. There should be something like an advisory board, who would give advise to media producers. An alternative catalogue of experts on different topics and fields could help, that new faces would come into public discussion. Migrants should work in context-unbound domains.
Cicek Bacik calls for more migrants in trade organizations. Media production must be or become even more diverse. She suggests further cooperation with Turkish media outlets. There should also be a media control or regulation board for Turkish media outlets with German licenses in order to guarantee quality of content. Another aspect Bacik pointed out was to establish research centers for ethnic media, which could help to create transparency.
As a result of the workshop all of the participants put emphasis on the importance of well-trained and informed media producers and scholars. Therefore it is necessary to start raising intercultural awareness already in vocational training. A program as “European Media and Cultural Studies” would help to develop intercultural as well as professional skills. Thus, the workshop ended in agreements about the necessity of organizing further joint activities involving governmental institutions, media corporations, and the project team of European Media and Cultural Studies Masters program in Potsdam and Istanbul.
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