Personal Announcements and Death Notices in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Press

In daily newspapers, the non-commercial personal announcements concerning birth, death, marriage, engagement, divorce, rejection and celebration convey messages, with their patterns formed in the cultural structure, reflecting the ideologies and necessities in the society. These announcements constitute a hierarchy of symbols based on the social and psychological indicators. The main function of the advertisement which aims to announce an event, a job or a change in individuals' situation, and which is called as written or oral news, is to contribute to social communication. As contributing to social communication, these types of advertisements in TRNC also include such concepts as solidarity, sharing, freedom, refinement and rising in social status. In the present research, the non-commercial personal announcements on birth, death, marriage, engagement, divorce, rejection and celebration published in three newspapers in TRNC were evaluated in terms of social status. In order to make a precise comparison between the daily newspapers published in TRNC, "Kibris" newspaper that has the highest number of printings; "Afrika" newspaper that has a moderate number of printings; and "Ortam" newspaper that has the lowest number of printings were chosen. The birth, marriage and death announcements published in these three newspapers, Kibris, Afrika, and Ortam, during the period between January 1, 2008 and January 31, 2008 were selected randomly and evaluated on the basis of discourse analysis. The death notices were examined in more detail since they mostly appear in newspapers and they are more important for the TRNC people with respect to social status and communication. The results showed that the death notices appear more widely in the newspapers than the other personal announcements on birth, marriage, engagement, divorce, rejection and celebration (277 of the 320 advertisements examined were death announcements). The majority of death notices, that is 40.5% of the total death notices, comprises condolence announcements. The announcements inviting to Mawlid (ritual), informational announcements and remembrance follow this figure. The announcements on condolence and remembrance enable social solidarity among family members, friends, colleagues and political groups, and provide public sphere for these groups. The profession of either the beloved or the beloved's family is stressed in the texts of the death notices in order to gain social status.