‘Speaking in One's Own Voice’: Representational Strategies of Alevi Turkish Migrants on Open‐Access Television in Berlin

Abstract

The article takes up current scholarly and policy discussions on mass media and minority participation in Western Europe, where the prerogative of letting minorities ‘speak in their own voice’ occupies a central place. The article presents the mass media activities of Turkish Alevi migrants at a local open‐access television station in Berlin, and problematises the notion of ‘voice’ with regard to cultural representations in their programmes and Internet publications. It is argued that Alevi media productions employ a range of representational strategies that can be understood only if their transnational context is taken into account. Confronting hegemonic discourses tied to two different nation‐states which ascribe diverging negative meanings to Alevi Muslims, media producers are shown to exploit this divergence in their attempts to construct positive images of Alevilik.