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Losing the sight of “truth”: Conspiracy theories and Turkey’s newspapers
Abstract
Debates on media in Turkey overwhelmingly concentrate over the freedom of press, but there is an undiscussed crucial problem in Turkey’s media: increasing reliance over using conspiracy theories as “facts” in reporting and analysis. There are structural problems of media in Turkey, creating a journalism culture that magnifies polemical, subjective and heavily politicized tendencies. This article examines how conspiracy theories are used for “framing the truth” and presented as “analytical explanation” by Turkey’s various newspapers. Three critical junctures in Turkey’s contemporary politics and one international event were particularly viewed through the lens of conspiracy theories by the media in Turkey. These junctures are the Gezi Protests and corruption scandal concerning cabinet members erupting on 24 December 2013 and the 6-7 September 2014. Protests against siege of Kobâne by ISIS in various cities of Turkey, mostly dominated by the Kurds, and the Charlie Hebdo and subsequent Paris Attacks. Media reflections of all these events were dominated by conspiracy theories especially in pro-government newspapers, but also depending on the event, in almost all of the print and audio-visual media. While the three critical junctures listed above posed direct challenges against the ruling Justice and Development Party and specifically its leader President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and they were framed as a “coup attempts against the elected government”; Charlie Hebdo-Paris Attacks case has been portrayed as a “conspiracy against Islam” and even against Turkey itself by a sizeable group of leading politicians and by most circulated national newspapers alike. News reports and analysis through conspiracy theories lead the loss of “truth” and objectivity. This article examines the findings of content analysis conducted on six of national newspapers (two deemed as mainstream and four regarded as “pro-government”) for a time span of one month after each selected case event occurred. Content analysis is done by close reading of news reports and columns projecting conspiracies. The research assesses how the conspiracies are framed, what kind of conceptualizations and vocabulary were used to depict the “conspirators” and who were they, and how the politicians’ narrative was mirrored/interpreted by the reporters and columnists. The article also aims to question why conspiracy theories are disseminated by the media without scrutiny and with enthusiasm, and what purpose do these theories serve. Overall, the article analyzes the dynamics of the media culture of Turkey with regards to its attraction to circulate conspiracy theories.
Discipline
Political Science
Geographic Area
Turkey
Sub Area
Media