MASS MEDIA AND THE REPULSIVE ALLURE OF RELIGIOUS HEALING: THE <i>CINCI HOCA</i> IN TURKISH MODERNITY

Abstract

[Fade in from commercial, sonorous male voice advertising the evening news.] Once again a cinci hoca , once again a sexual harassing… Recently in our country, this exorcizing of spirits, witchcraft, fortune-telling, and mediumship, which are all products of primitive, magical thought, have been spreading like an epidemic. For years, either knowingly or unknowingly, they have been given extensive advertisement in newspapers and on television stations that seek to increase their circulation with dramatic news. —Dr. Orhan Öztürk, Cumhuriyet , 1997