Turkish Perspectives on Secularization and Media

This book offers a concise yet comprehensive overview of how religion, secularization, and media intersect within Türkiye’s unique sociocultural context. Moving beyond the classical secularization thesis, the volume adopts a more nuanced understanding that emphasizes transformation, negotiation, and hybridization. Bringing together thirteen interdisciplinary chapters, the book examines a wide range of topics from the secularization of law and Islamist intellectual debates to Turkish cinema, television dramas, digital atheist activism, humor, artificial intelligence, and online mourning rituals. Each contribution highlights how media operate not only as a tool but as a value-laden cultural ground that shapes everyday beliefs, moral tensions, and identity negotiations. By situating these discussions within Türkiye’s distinctive path of modernization, the volume fills a significant gap in global secularization and media studies. It offers fresh conceptual insights and rich empirical analyses for scholars and readers interested in understanding the interaction between religion and modernity in contemporary societies.