From Feuilleton Turc to geopolitics: how Tunisian audiences consume and interpret Turkish television dramas

Turkish television series and cinema have emerged as significant instruments of cultural projection across South Asia, Latin America, and particularly the Middle East and North Africa. Tunisia represents a sustained site of reception within this transnational media flow, where Turkish productions have remained popular despite fluctuations in bilateral political relations, including Tunisia’s political reconfiguration in 2021. This article examines Tunisian engagement with Turkish television series through two survey waves conducted in 2018 and 2026, situating audience reception within debates on popular geopolitics and soft power. It explores whether Turkish dramas operate as geopolitical narratives that shape perceptions of Turkey’s regional role, contribute to the symbolic reconfiguration of Turkey–Tunisia relations, or are primarily consumed as entertainment detached from formal political alignment. The findings suggest that while Turkish television series sustain Turkey’s geo-cultural visibility, they do not generate linear political convergence. Instead, Tunisian audiences interpret these narratives through locally embedded frameworks shaped by secular history, post-revolutionary polarisation, and identity debates. Domestic political change in Tunisia appears to have had limited impact on viewing patterns, underscoring the relative autonomy of cultural consumption from immediate geopolitical shifts.