Did the Media Support or Subordinate Women in the COVID-19 Pandemic?: An Analysis of Turkish Television Commercials

Introduction

This study aims to understand the media representation of women in Turkey in the times of the Covid 19 pandemic. A wide field of academic studies that can be called women's studies has developed, and the media representation of women is an important part of this field. These studies compile data on the historical or current position of women in media. This study focuses on the representation of women in the media during the covid 19 pandemic, which is a very specific period.

The Covid-19 pandemic has become widespread across the world by 2020 along with various problems related to gender equality in many aspects of social and economic life. In particular, the complete lockdown process implemented as a global measure to prevent the spread of the pandemic has had significant consequences. In addition to the decrease in production and employment brought about by the pandemic, the necessity of keeping the majority of the population at home has had significant consequences. During this period, the fact that adults became unemployed or had to work from home and that the children had to stay at home due to distance education also increased the obligations within the household. It was also demonstrated in several studies that the pressure of changing conditions on women was quite serious. Therefore, different vital needs brought by the Covid-19 epidemic have led to different difficulties for women and men.

In Turkey, it is seen that the Covid-19 period has had negative effects on women. The negative effects of the Covid-19 period on women were underlined in the reports published by various organizations focusing on gender in the Covid-19 period. These problems can be summarized into three articles:

• 1.

  Disproportional dismissal of women in economic life,

• 2.

  Increased burden on women at home since daily responsibilities in households such as nutrition and childcare are mostly undertaken by women, and

• 3.

  Increased domestic violence against women (Aygunes and Can Ok, 2020; TUSIAD Report, 2021).

The efforts to promote gender equality in social life faced significant problems during the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, it is important to reveal and analyze miscellaneous problems experienced by women as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic in the period of approximately 1.5 years since March 2020. The problems arising from the Covid-19 pandemic for women should be analyzed in a multifaceted way.

Social problems are also reflected in the media and reproduced by various means. In this perspective advertising is the communication medium that establishes the fastest relationship with current events. In this respect, an analysis of how the current problems of women are handled in the media in such an extraordinary period should be carried out through advertisements. In this perspective in the study, answers to the following research questions will be sought to reveal the basic features of the representation of women in television advertisements broadcast in Turkey in the post-Covid-19 period.

How is the role of women in the workforce represented in advertisements?

How is the role of women in public/private life activities represent in advertisements?

How are women represented in terms of their role in the household or business life during the pandemic in advertisements?

This study, which aims to answer the above research questions, consists of three main parts. In the study, firstly, general information about gender and women is given. Afterward, studies focusing on women during the covid are analyzed. In the last part, the representation of women in advertisements published during the pandemic period in Turkey during the covid period is analyzed by employing critical discourse analysis. Critical discourse analysis is a comprehensive method that can be used in many different ways. The multidimensional critical discourse analysis developed by Guy Cook (2021) was preferred and comprehensive analysis of advertisements was carried out through discourse analysis. In this context, visual elements and other contextual elements were included in the analysis, along with the linguistic expressions used for women in the advertisement. The advertisements during the pandemic were mostly a combination of images. Hence, in the study, a qualitative analysis was carried out by using mostly visual data. The analysis was carried out on television advertisements shared on Youtube with the hashtag #evdekalturkiye.