The Critical Discourse Analysis of the Messiah Series: Is the Return of the Messiah? Is the Transformation of Messiah?

• Main Authors: Melik Koç, Meltem Güler
• Format: Article
• Language: Arabic
• Published: Erciyes University 2021-06-01
• Series: Medya ve Din Araştırmaları Dergisi
• Subjects: messiah series; netflix; television; culture; religion; ideology; critical discourse analysis
• Online Access: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/mediad/issue/63219/856947

The content of media texts produced by the media through social representations is closely related to the value judgments, socio-cultural structures, ideological and political tendencies of the societies. Religion, which provides the structure that culture needs in the formation of socio-cultural structure and values, is a field of ideological meaning for Stuart Hall. British Cultural Studies also sees media texts as an area where ideological reproduction takes place and at the same time ideological struggle is fought. The relationship between religion and ideology forms a multi-layered field when it comes together with the view that the media is ideological. This study aims to examine the belief of the Mahdi / Messiah in the context of the Messiah series and to make visible the messages the series conveys to society in terms of religion, culture, ideology, politics, hegemony, and media. The discourses on religious, political, and cultural representations and codes within the scope of international relations in the series have been analyzed with the concepts of critical discourse analysis of Van Dijk, which emphasizes that meaning is constructed through language and is based on the constructivist representation approach within the critical paradigm. In the analysis conducted over the ten episodes of the series that constitutes the first season, it was determined that the series emphasized the ideological aspect of religion in terms of both its unifying and separating character and that it opened a new discourse of religion and order instead of these known religions and beliefs.