49. Today in 1920s Turkey: 8 January 1927 (Paperboys and Supply & Demand)

(Snippet with photograph, Karagöz, 8 January 1927, no. 1963, page 3.)

Comments:
According to the caption below the photograph these are “the young men who distributed two thousand Karagöz’s by themselves in Izmir.” These remarkable numbers are cited in the blurb to draw the reader’s attention both to the publication’s popularity and the country’s rising literacy rates. The content of Karagöz had always been populist in attitude and largely supportive of the nationalist government and its modernist reform agenda including the its increased focus on establishing new public schools across the country. Thus, not taking all of the credit for their increased sales numbers, Karagöz attributes part of its success to the government’s new schools; the nation’s will to pursue literacy; and the people “waking up” with every new publication they read.

This is not the only time Karagöz celebrated/honored its paperboys by including a photograph of them in the pages of the paper. For instance, another paperboy, #6: Li’l Mehmet the Paperboy, was celebrated in an August 1927 issue of Karagöz. The text accompanying the photograph of this young boy focused on his shrewdness and eagerness to work. This paperboy represented labor and self-sufficiency whereas the paperboys from today's issue of Karagöz are imbued with a narrative of literacy and enlightenment.

English:
Newspaper [Practices] in Anatolia:
Every passing day the nation’s eyes are opening and readers are multiplying. There is no doubt that the many schools opening every year are educating our children. We know from our newspaper’s circulation that the amount of this country’s literate people is increasing every year. For instance, these two children whose pictures we’ve printed sell two thousand copies of Karagöz all by themselves just in Izmir. The people are waking up as the more they read. May the people of our more backwards provinces like Erzurum, Elazığ, Bitlis be next!

Türkçe:
Anadolu İçinde Gazetecilik:
Gün geçtikçe milletin gözü açılıyor. Ve okuyanlar çoğalıyor. Şüphe yok ki her sene açılan bir çok mektepler çocuklarımızı okutuyor. Memlekette okuyanların her yıl arttığını biz gazetemizin revacından anlarız. Mesela şu resimlerini bastığımız iki çocuk yalnız İzmir’de ve yalnız başlarına iki bin tane Karagöz dağıtmaktadırlar. Halk okudukça uyanıyor. Darısı Erzurum, Elazığ, Bitlis gibi daha geri vilayetlerimizin halkının başına!

Altyazı: İzmir’de yalnız başlarına iki bin Karagöz dağıtan gençler.

(Entire page, Karagöz, 8 January 1927, no. 1963, page 3.)