Two books, many worlds...

Today I will touch upon two books. The first is a collaborative work by communication professors Dr. Bengü Başbuğ and Dr. Cangül Akdaş: 'The Anatomy of New Media'. The other is journalist-author Olcay Bağır's book 'Çukurova Tales', which serves as a cultural bridge connecting the past to the present...

CODES OF THE DIGITAL COMMUNICATION AGE: THE ANATOMY OF NEW MEDIA

Everything is so fast in modern times!.. Whether we call the era we live in the digital age or the technological age, it is clear that nothing will ever be the same as it was, and everything is constantly being renewed...

The person of the written age and the person of the digital age possess different characteristics. Marshall McLuhan, who introduced the concept of the 'Global Village' to the field of communication, stated that written culture caused people to become individualized, distancing them from one another and leading to the loss of their consciousness. According to McLuhan, the electronic age we are in will provide an opportunity for people to regain their consciousness...

Media is also evolving within the digital world and exists in the form of 'New Media'. Communication professors Dr. Bengü Başbuğ and Dr. Cangül Akdaş prepared 'The Anatomy of New Media' (Urzeni Publishing) based on changing concepts and practices...

The book explains the fundamental structure of the digital world that opens when the power button is pressed, presenting the 'sesame door' and the 'rabbit hole' of the modern age to the reader...

Much like 'Ali Baba' in 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves' who opens the door where secret treasures are hidden by saying 'Open Sesame', or like 'Alice' who jumps down the rabbit hole into 'Wonderland' following her curiosity, we too cross an invisible threshold when we press the power button...

That small icon invites us into a limitless universe where data, light, and dreams intertwine. Aiming to analyze the organic ties between new media and digital communication, as well as the dynamics that bring screens to life and set the invisible into motion, the study turns toward the veins, nerve endings, and collective memory of the digital age with an approach as simple yet effective as the power button found on all devices.

Today, we knock on the door of the digital world with our fingertips and enter the virtual realm. With a single touch, we settle into the story as both narrator and protagonist.

The book tells the reader that it is time to press the power button...

A CULTURAL BRIDGE: ÇUKUROVA TALES

Journalist-author Olcay Bağır's newly released 'Çukurova Tales'... This work, which is part of the 'World Tales Series' by Kara Karga Publishing, transforms narratives compiled from the region's oral culture into a literary form.

Çukurova is a geography of fertile lands, legends carried by the wind, ancient thoughts, and childhood memories. A tale has always existed in the murmur of the rivers, in the heat of the scorching summer, and in the silence of the cotton fields. 'Çukurova Tales' brings these forgotten tales back to light; it speaks not only to children but also to adults who have forgotten how to dream.

Çukurova is not just the land of agriculture, sun, and cotton; it is also the land of words, stories, and patience... These lands are what nourish the epic narratives of Yaşar Kemal, the stories of Orhan Kemal that keep a pulse on the laborers, the poetry of Karacaoğlan kneaded with the language of the people, and that unique geography echoed in the paintings of Abidin Dino... The place where one lives shapes its author and molds its poet with its people, nature, and legends. 'Çukurova Tales' is like an echo of those deep-rooted cultural veins carried into the present... In Bağır's pen, the tales find their way back to their own soil.



In the book, the author appears not just as a compiler, but as a narrator who adds her own voice to the tales. Each tale seems to both carry the trace of a folk narrative and breathe anew with a literary touch.

Legends ranging from 'Shahmaran' to the 'Seven Sleepers', from 'Anavarza Castle' to 'Maiden's Castle' (Kızkalesi), come to life again in the shadow of the 'Simurgh' bird...

'Çukurova Tales' is a literary work that is both nostalgic and innovative, flowing once again from one of Anatolia's richest cultural veins. In an age where tales are forgotten, Olcay Bağır does not just remind us of them; she brings them back to life.

I hope that the new book by the author, who published the book 'Sine Sözlük' last year to great interest, will also be passed from hand to hand.