Gastrodiplomacy and Soft Power in Turkish TV Series: Constructing Attraction Through Gastronomic Representations

Abstract

This study examines how gastronomic representations in Turkish television series are articulated to the production of cultural attraction within the framework of gastrodiplomacy and soft power. It is significant in that it approaches popular culture products not merely as entertainment content, but as circulation spaces where everyday cultural practices, local symbols, and forms of emotional proximity may generate cultural meaning and attraction. The analysis focuses on the first ten episodes of Taşacak Bu Deniz, Halef: Köklerin Çağrısı, and Uzak Şehir. Food scenes, table and hospitality rituals, local product indicators, and kitchen spaces are examined together with the digital paratexts surrounding these representations and publicly available digital comments. The study does not claim to measure audience reception directly; rather, it treats comments as limited and context-specific textual traces that emerge during the online circulation of gastronomic representations. The theoretical framework is based on the intersection of new public diplomacy, soft power, and gastrodiplomacy literature, with particular emphasis on the mechanism of attraction. Methodologically, qualitative content analysis and discourse analysis are used together, and the data are evaluated through the indicators of authenticity, affect, attraction, representation, and circulation. The findings show that gastronomic elements are mostly associated with domestic sharing, care, healing, hospitality, locality, and authenticity. Digital paratexts and comments recirculate these representations through frames such as romance, nostalgia, recipe curiosity, desire to try, appreciation, and, in some cases, authenticity negotiations. However, gastronomic visibility does not appear with the same intensity in every episode, and digital circulation differs across the selected series. Consequently, the study argues that Turkish television series, although not formal instruments of gastrodiplomacy, can be considered significant cultural channels through which everyday gastronomic practices produce attraction and become visible again through digital circulation.