Öz
Mass media, especially television, can play an active role in informing people about religion, and in this sense, the media is considered as a non-formal religious education tool. In this context, the Presidency of Religious Affairs has set itself a principle to offer various television and radio services for everyone in the society by using the potentialities of today’s information and communication technology. This study’s aim is to scrutinize cartoons for children aired on Diyanet TV in terms of religious education. The main problem situation of the study is determined as follows: “Do the cartoons aired on Diyanet TV provide content that supports religious education of the children?” In the study in which qualitative research method is adopted, document analysis is preferred, and the data are analyzed with content analysis. As the sample of the research, 10 episodes of Dedemin Öyküleri and Yusuf’un Dünyası are selected with purposeful sampling technique. In determining the analysis categories of the study, the 4-6 Age Group Koran Courses Curriculum of the year of 2018 is taken as basis.
As a result of this study, it is determined that the most frequently used religious contents in both cartoons fall under the categories of “Allah” and other religious elements. It is seen that some of the contents within the scope of the category of “Allah” are expressions used in daily language with the word Allah. This sort of contextualization is important with respect to the children’s being familiar with religious language and in this way socializing religiously. Apart from this, it is observed that the word “Allah” is being uttered in various contexts such as praying, giving thanks, His wills and love. Overall, it can be argued that in both cartoons there is no abstract and incomprehensible content concerning Allah.
As for other religious elements, it is observed that some expressions (e.g. basmala, prayer and amen) are commonly used in each one of the cartoons. These expressions are important in terms of children’s use of religious language in daily life and their participation in religious community. Furthermore, in Yusuf’un Dünyası, ablution and prayer as worshipping are included in regards to having ablution and performing the morning prayer without going into much details. Here it must be noted that the ablution and prayer is presented with a simple content appropriate to the developmental level of children.
In the analysis category of prophet, whereas there is an intense content in Dedemin Öyküleri, the content on this topic is quite limited in Yusuf’un Dünyası. In Dedemin Öyküleri, it is mentioned a hadith (i.e., saying) of Prophet Muhammad related to the subject of the episode, his communication with the Companions or an example of an event that happened to them. Other prophets; Jacob and Josef, Noah and Jonah are also mentioned. This makes the cartoon appropriate not only to the children getting to know different prophets but also to the representation of the themes discussed in the life of the prophets.
Regarding the analysis categories of the Book (i.e., Qur’an) and religious places, it is observed that there is no or limited content in both cartoons.
At the end of the study, it is concluded overall that in both cartoons a content that would contribute to the religious development of children is presented. However, in the conclusion some suggestions are also made for the development of the cartoons in terms of their contribution to religious education.