Marketing electricity: Ameli elektrik magazine (1925-1934) and the introduction of electricity as a mass consumption item in the interwar period

Abstract

Electricity was introduced to the Ottoman Empire with the establishment of the 'Silahtarağa Power Plant' in Istanbul in 1914. This new technology, like in all the other regions in the world, gradually brought massive changes in the daily lives of the İstanbul populace. Even though there were other illumination technologies and small-scale power plants before Silahtarağa, this plant offered a city-based and non-stop source of electricity to locals. Likewise, electricity with its appliances started to change many daily practices from transportation to cooking. Electricity was comparatively a late coming technology to the Ottoman Empire. Factors like the rush to modernization because of rivalry in the European periphery have pushed the Ottoman government to finally accommodate this technology. Adaptation to electricity was important for the expansion of the customer base of the electricity company. A bi-monthly free-of-charge magazine titled "Ameli Elektrik" began to be distributed in 1925 to each electricity customer and continued until 1934. This magazine, with the SATİE company, mainly aimed to promote electricity, electrical appliances, etc., and a 'new way of life' which came with those. Commercials, cartoons, recent news about electricity, recipes, and fashion advice were all included in this print medium. Its content was shaped by its target audience, which was the upper-middle class of İstanbul, who were able to reach electricity and its appliances. This study aims to examine this magazine's content as a mirror on which the mentalities, ideologies, social norms, and biases of the period were reflected. The tools and concepts of the social history of technology and discourse analyses are the basis of this study's methodology. The nine-year publication period of this magazine straddles the first years of the Turkish Republic, therefore witnessing innumerable changes. For instance, one can trace the radical political ups and downs such as the new reforms and the social change that came with them. Moreover, this magazine even reflects the impact of the alphabet reform of 1928 on print media. Similarly, we can see that gender structures and norms were both constructed, reproduced, and manipulated through this magazine. This thesis will present this magazine as multilayered evidence of technological and social change during the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the young Turkish republic. Finally, it will introduce a source that hitherto had not been examined on this scale.