Cartoons teaching children Turkish culture, TV officials say

Akbal, explaining their criteria in evaluating potential children’s animated programs, said their aim is to provide programming that both entertains and motivates children to become positive and productive members of society

Akbal also pointed to the importance of cultural elements in cartoons and acknowledged their influence on children’s behavior. “For this reason we attach great importance to cartoons that reflect different aspects of Turkish culture. Currently our channel broadcasts 30 local cartoons that carry the ‘colors of us’,” she noted.

Akbal also said they categorize cartoons by age groups, offering different selections for children ages 0-6 and 7-13 to meet the interests of the targeted groups.

Yumurcak TV also offers some programs to help parents forge healthier relationships with their children. “For our new program titled ‘As We Grow Together,’ we’ve consulted pedagogues who will help us to determine the framework of the program,” she noted.

She said they also are working to help disabled children overcome self-esteem issues stemming from the isolation they generally face through a documentary called “I Am Here!” Akbal said they want to help children with disabilities feel more powerful and avoid emotional exploitation.

Akbal also highlighted her station’s efforts to create a new broadcasting approach which allows children -- the audience -- to have more of a say on the framework of programs and noted that thousands of children have sent in essays, poems and paintings to competitions organized by the channel. “The channel has provided an unprecedented opportunity to parents to learn what kind of cartoons their children watch by putting the context of the programs on our Web site and telling them of the pedagogical advantages of these programs.”

Agreeing with Akbal, state-sponsored children’s channel TRT Çocuk (TRT Child) General Manager Can Soysal stated that children play an important role in shaping their programs with criticism and commentary, which they sent in by mail.

Soysal reiterated the important role of cartoons and children’s programs on children’s education in a critical period of their character development and added that currently huge technological advances have led children to stay under a constant stream of input from different cultures from computer games and cartoons featuring their heroes. Drawing attention to the success of TV channels targeting children around the world, Soysal noted that Turkey is just now grabbing hold of the global trend in terms of children’s television.

“Our children have been victimized by cultural bombardment as they watch foreign cartoons which include elements reflecting foreign cultures’ daily life and rituals,” said Soysal, as he praised TRT General Director İbrahim Şahin’s determination to launch a children’s channel as the first issue on his agenda when he took over the post in 2008; the channel started airing later that same year. He stated that the cartoons featuring aspects of Turkish culture are an important opportunity to preserve the local culture and transfer it to the future generation.

“At the moment, 60 percent of our programs are generated by Turkish scriptwriters and Turkish illustrators. We have regular meetings with them to come up with further projects, and our efforts have started to bear fruit, as some of our programs have won awards from international organizations. This initiative to gather cartoon publishers, scriptwriters and illustrators will result in a growing share in the global cartoon market,” said Soysal, who added that TRT Çocuk has begun to export its programming to foreign TV channels. Soysal noted that although Turkey’s position cannot be considered bad in the global cartoon market, considerable measures should be taken to make the country’s cartoon industry competitive with the powerhouses of the market like South Korea and Spain.

The veteran broadcaster also pointed to the emergence of another market related to the cartoon market, product tie-ins of animated stars. “Dozens of marketing tie-ins have successfully attracted children’s interest. Most children want to have a pen, a school bag or even a bedcover featuring Spiderman.”