Ortadoğu'da Dijital Platformlar ve Elit Temsilleri: Kültürel Hegemonya, Karşı-Hegemonya ve Medya Söylemleri Üzerine Bir İnceleme

Year 2025, Issue: Yeni Medya Çalışmaları, 563 - 596, 28.09.2025

Gökhan Bozbaş

https://doi.org/10.53791/imgelem.1746661

Abstract

Ortadoğu'da dijital platformlar üzerinden sunulan elit temsillerini inceleyen bu çalışma, Netflix'te yayımlanan Dubai Bling, AlRawabi School for Girls ve The Spy dizilerini kültürel hegemonya, karşı-hegemonya ve postkolonyal kuram bağlamında analiz etmektedir. Bu çalışma, Netflix’teki Dubai Bling, AlRawabi School for Girls ve The Spy dizilerinde elit temsillerini kültürel hegemonya ve postkolonyal kuram çerçevesinde sahne ölçekli eleştirel söylem ve görsel-semiotik analizle inceler. Bulgular, lüks ikonografisi ve güvenlik estetiğinin ekonomik/politik sermayeyi simgesel otoriteye dönüştürdüğünü; karşı-hegemonik anlatıların ise sınırlı kaldığını gösterir. Dubai Bling’de tüketim ritüelleri meşruiyeti estetize eder; AlRawabi’de okul mekânı ve disiplin, cinsiyetlendirilmiş hiyerarşiyi sahneler; The Spy’da renk ve kadrajlar “düzen/kaos” ikiliğini kurar. Alt sınıf ve madun özneler genellikle görünmezdir. Sonuç olarak dijital platformlar, yerel-küresel simbiyozda elit imgesini yeniden üreten ideolojik aygıtlar olarak işler; çalışma, estetik meşrulaştırmayı sahne düzeyinde operasyonelleştirerek meşruiyetin görsel göstergelerini sistematik biçimde haritalar. Sonuç olarak, çalışma dijital platformların elit temsillerini yerel-küresel simbiyoz içinde yeniden üreten ideolojik aygıtlar olduğunu vurgulayarak, dijital medya çalışmalarına disiplinlerarası bir katkı sunmaktadır.

Keywords

Kültürel Hegemonya , Dijital Platformlar , Elit Temsilleri , Sembolik Sermaye , Postkolonyal Kuram.

Digital Platforms and Elite Representations in the Middle East: Examination of Cultural Hegemony, Counter Hegemony, and Media Discourses

Abstract

The article analyzes elite representations in Netflix’s Dubai Bling, AlRawabi School for Girls, and The Spy through scene-level critical discourse and visual-semiotic analysis. It shows how luxury iconography and security aesthetics convert economic/political capital into symbolic authority, while counter-hegemonic narratives remain weak. Dubai Bling aestheticizes consumption; AlRawabi stages gendered hierarchy through school space and discipline; The Spy visualizes an order/chaos binary via grading and framing. Subaltern actors are largely invisible. We conceptualize this as aesthetic legitimation under platform capitalism: performances are ritualized, visibility is governed, and legitimacy travels from narrative to paratexts. Digital platforms thus function as ideological apparatuses that reproduce elite imagery in a local–global symbiosis. The findings underscore digital platforms as ideological apparatuses that reproduce elite imagery through a local–global symbiosis, and they also map indicators of elite legitimacy by operationalizing critical theory at the scene level.

Keywords

Digital Platforms , Cultural Hegemony , Elite Representations , Symbolic Capital , Post‑colonial Theory.

References

• Abbas, M. (2023). Netflix’s Role in Reshaping the Global Audience’s Perception of Arabs and Muslims [Master's Thesis, the American University in Cairo]. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/2083
• Abu Salma, N. (2021, August 23). Musalsal "Madrasat AlRawabi lil-Banāt" al-muthīr lil-jadal.. 7 qaḍāyā ḥassāsa fī ṣaff dirāsī wāḥid [مسلسل "مدرسة الروابي للبنات" المثير للجدل.. 7 قضايا حساسة في صف دراسي واحد]. Arabi Post. https://arabicpost.net/فن-ومشاهیر/2021/08/23/مسلسل-مدرسة-الروابي-للبنات-المثير-لل/ (Access: 13.06.2025).
• AbuKhalil, A. (1997). Change and democratisation in the Arab world: The role of political parties, Third World Quarterly, 18(1), 149-164. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436599715109
• Ademolu, E. (2024). #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou: An Afrodiasporic Subaltern Counterpublic, Sociological Research Online, 29(3), 650-674.
• Aivas, S. A., Jalal, H. M. & Aziz, A. R. (2025). The role of media in shaping rivalries: Framing contention in the Middle East regions, SSRG International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 12(3), 65-77. Doi: https://doi.org/10.14445/23942703/IJHSS-V12I3P109
• Al-Abri, R. N. (2022). Al-ṣūra al-namaṭiyya lil-mar'a fī al-drāmā al-ʿarabiyya ʿalā manṣat Netflix: Dirāsa taḥlīliyya li-ʿayina min al-musalsalāt al-tilīfizyūniyya, Majallat Lubāb lil-Dirāsāt al-Iʿlāmiyya, (14), 64-72. https://studies.aljazeera.net/ar/article/5377 (Access: 13.07.2025).
• Al-Shaer, A. N. M. (2022). Tawẓīf Isrāʾīl lil-diblūmāsiyya al-raqamiyya fī daʿm riwāyatihā ʿabra manṣṣat Netflix: Dirāsa taḥlīliyya lil-masalsalāt al-Isrāʾīliyya ʿalā al-manṣṣa [توظيف إسرائيل للدبلوماسية الرقمية في دعم روايتها عبر منصة نتفلكس: دراسة تحليلية للمسلسلات الإسرائيلية على المنصة] (Unpublished master's thesis). Al-Quds University. https://dspace.alquds.edu/handle/20.500.12213/7107 (Access: 13.07.2025).
• AlSayyad, Y. (2021, September 18). The Netflix teen drama that goes deeper into the Arab patriarchy. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-netflix-teen-drama-that-goes-deeper-into-the-arab-patriarchy (Access: 12.05.2025).
• Amin, B. (2021, September 11). AlRawabi School for Girls: The pink madness of Netflix’s Jordanian hit. CairoScene. https://cairoscene.com/artsandculture/alrawabi-school-for-girls-the-pink-madness-of-netflix-s-jordanian-hit (Access: 13.07.2025).
• Aslan, A. (2020). Dijital diaspora ve kültürel kimlik: Türkiye’de yaşayan Çerkes gençlerle derinlemesine bir görüşme, Akdeniz İletişim Dergisi, 34, 66-82. Doi: https://doi.org/10.31123/akil.781866
• Benson, R. (2009). Shaping the public sphere: Habermas and beyond, American Sociologist, 40(3), 175-197. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-009-9071-1
• Boshnakova, D., Miconi, A. & Toms, J. (Eds.). (2024). Hegemony: Platformization of video – The European perspective, New Bulgarian University.
• Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital, J. Richardson (Ed.), in Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (241-258), Greenwood.
• Braun, V., Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology, Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
• Collider. (2023). Everything we know so far about season 2 of 'Dubai Bling'. Collider. https://collider.com/dubai-bling-season-2-release-date-cast-trailer/ (Access: 12.05.2025).
• Çamur, M., Zinderen, İ. E. (2021). Yeni medya ve ideoloji: Netflix yapımı dizilere Althusser’ci bir yaklaşım, İNİF E-Dergi, 6(1), 465-484. https://doi.org/10.47107/inifedergi.889258
• Davidson, A. (1984). Gramsci, the peasantry and popular culture, The Journal of Peasant Studies, 11(4), 139-154.
• Demircioğlu, F. (2024). Digital Diplomacy and Its Impacts on Uzbekistan’s International Relations, İmgelem, Özbekistan Özel Sayısı, 171-190. Doi: https://doi.org/10.53791/imgelem.1506938
• El-Muḥarrij, M., Dakna, M. (2020). Athar manṣṣat Netflix ʿalā al-qiyam al-thaqāfiyya ladā ash-shabāb as-suʿūdī [أثر منصّة نتفليكس على القيم الثقافية لدى الشباب السعودي], Al-Majalla al-ʿArabiyya li Buḥūth al-Iʿlām wa al-Ittiṣāl, 23, 100-128.
• FACT Magazines. (2023). Everything you need to know about Dubai Bling season 3. FACT Magazines. https://www.factmagazines.com/entertainment/watch-the-fashion-fun-and-fights-in-the-dubai-bling-trailer (Access: 26.05.2025).
• Fahim, J. (2022, November 3). Dubai Bling: Glitz, glamour and the shallow lives of the nouveau riche. Middle East Eye. https://www.middleeasteye.net/discover/dubai-bling-netflix-glitz-glamour-shallow-lives-nouveau-riche (Access: 06.05.2025).
• Fairclough, N. (2014). Language and power (3rd ed.), Routledge.
• Fanon, F. (1986). Black skin, white masks, C. L. Markmann (Trans.), Pluto Press.
• Fraser, N. (1990). Rethinking the public sphere: A contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy, Social Text, 25/26, 56-80. Doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/466240
• Gramsci, A. (1971). Selections from the prison notebooks, Q. Hoare & G. N. Smith (Eds. & Trans.), International Publishers.
• Habermas, J. (2006). Political communication in media society: Does democracy still enjoy an epistemic dimension? The impact of normative theory on empirical research, Communication Theory, 16(4), 411-426. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2006.00280.x
• Habermas, J. (2012). The structural transformation of the public sphere: An inquiry into a category of bourgeois society, T. Burger & F. Lawrence (Trans.), Polity Press.
• Herborth, B. (2023). Global subaltern counter publics: Mapping contestation in digital media spaces, Media, Culture & Society, 45(1), 95-110.
• Iordache, C. (2018). Netflix in the Middle East: Strategies and challenges in a culturally diverse market (Doctoral dissertation, Erasmus University Rotterdam), Erasmus University Thesis Repository. https://repub.eur.nl/pub/105464
• Itamar, R. (1972). Syria under the Ba'th, 1963-1966: The Army-Party Symbiosis.
• Kraidy, M. M., Al-Ghazzi, O. (2013). Neo-Ottoman cool: Turkish popular culture in the Arab public sphere, Popular Communication, 11(1), 17-29. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2013.747940
• Kuntsman, A., Stein, R. (2011). Digital suspicions: The politics of cynicism and doubt in online activism, Information, Communication & Society, 14(8), 1-10.
• Lavie, N., Jamal, A. (2019). Constructing ethnonational differentiation on the set of the TV series, Fauda, Ethnicities, 19(6), 1038-1061. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796819857180
• Lynch, M. (2003). Beyond the Arab Street: Iraq and the Arab Public Sphere, Politics & Society, 31(1), 55-91. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329202250170
• Lynch, M. (2007). Arab arguments: Talk shows and the new Arab public sphere, in New media and the new Middle East (101-118), New York: Palgrave Macmillan US.
• Lynch, M. (2015). After the Arab Spring: How the media trashed the transitions, Journal of Democracy, 26(4), 90-99. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2015.0070
• Lynch, M. (2015). The rise and fall of the new Arab public sphere, Current History, 114(776), 331-336.