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PRESS-PARTY PARALLELISM IN TURKEY AND IN THE UK by SALĠH BAYRAM Submitted to the Institute of Social Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science Sabancı University Spring 2011 © Salih Bayram 2011 All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT PRESS-PARTY PARALLELISM IN TURKEY AND IN THE UK Salih Bayram PhD, Political Science, 2011 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ali Çarkoğlu Keywords: press-party parallelism, Turkish press, British press, elections, content analysis This is a study of press-party parallelism in Turkey and in the UK, which refers to the degree to which the newspaper system parallels the party system. The study first provides a descriptive account of the history of press-party parallelism in the two countries. In the Turkish case, there was no discernible overall trend, from higher to lower parallelism or otherwise, but a number of ups and downs. In the British case, an overall decline is observed over time, but this conclusion is qualified by the differences in the behavior of the different segments of the British press. The study then provides an evaluation of the modernization, commercialization and party system explanations. We do not see, contrary to the prediction based upon modernization approach, a smooth decline in parallelism over time, nor do we observe lower levels of parallelism in the commercialized periods in the two cases. Ideological polarization and cleavage voting, on the other hand, do seem to contribute to higher levels of political parallelism in the press. In the last part of the study, newspapers coverages prior to 2007 elections in Turkey, and 2001, 2005, and 2010 elections in the UK were analyzed using a word-count based methodology. Contrary to our expectations, the level of parallelism was higher in the Turkish press than in the British press, and biased content in newspapers was not limited to opinion pages only, with news articles being just as biased as, and in some cases even more biased than, the opinion articles. iv ÖZET TÜRKĠYE VE ĠNGĠLTERE‟DE BASIN-PARTĠ PARALELLĠĞĠ Salih Bayram Siyaset Bilimi, Doktora, 2011 Tez DanıĢmanı: Prof. Dr. Ali Çarkoğlu Anahtar Sözcükler: basın-parti paralelliği, Türk basını, Ġngiliz basını, seçimler, içerik analizi Bu çalıĢmada, gazete sisteminin parti sistemi ile ne kadar paralellik gösterdiğini anlatan basın-parti paralelliği kavramı Türkiye ve Ġngiltere örnekleri üzerinden incelenmektedir. Ġlk olarak basın-parti paralelliğinin bu iki ülkedeki tarihi geliĢimi incelenmiĢtir. Türkiye örneğinde, zaman içinde daha fazla paralellikten daha az paralelliğe doğru veya bunun dıĢında bir tek yönlü süreç değil, değiĢik dalgalanmalar gözlenmiĢtir. Ġngiltere örneğinde ise basının tamamı dikkate alındığında zamanla daha az paralellik gözlenmiĢ, ancak Ġngiliz basınındaki farklı piyasa segmentlerinin davranıĢları birbirinden farklı olmuĢtur. ÇalıĢmada ayrıca basın-parti paralelliği ile ilgili modernleĢme, ticarileĢme ve parti sistemi açıklamaları da incelenen iki örnekten yola çıkılarak değerlendirilmiĢtir. ModernleĢme açıklamasının öngörüsünden farklı olarak, paralellikte zaman içinde sürekli bir azalma gözlenmemiĢ, ayrıca ticarileĢmenin daha fazla olduğu dönemlerde paralelliğin daha az olacağı beklentisi de karĢılanmamıĢtır. Ġdeolojik kutuplaĢmanın ve grup aidiyetine bağlı oylamanın güçlü olduğu dönemlerde ise, hipotezlere uygun olarak, paralelliğin daha yüksek olduğu gözlenmiĢtir. ÇalıĢmanın son bölümünde Türkiye‟deki 2007 seçimleri ile Ġngiltere‟deki 2001, 2005 ve 2010 seçimleri öncesindeki gazete içerikleri kelime sayımına dayanan bir yöntem kullanılarak incelenmiĢtir. Beklentilerimizin aksine, Türk basınındaki paralelliğin Ġngiliz basınındaki paralellikten daha yüksek olduğu ve her iki örnekte de sadece köĢe yazılarının değil, tarafsız olması beklenen haber yazılarının da yanlı bir tutum sergilediği, hatta çoğu zaman gazetelerdeki haber içeriğinin yorum içeriğinden daha yanlı olduğu gözlenmiĢtir. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to thank Assoc. Prof. FatoĢ GökĢen for encouraging me to pursue graduate studies instead of another line of career, and for introducing in her undergraduate classes many canonical texts on media and communications, which form part of the inspiration for this dissertation. I would also like to thank Sabancı University, TÜBĠTAK, and Yalova University, all of which provided financial support in various forms at different stages of the preparation of this dissertation. My advisor Prof. Ali Çarkoğlu has been very friendly and supportive throughout the process, and provided much valuable and timely guidance. Prof. Sabri Sayarı and Prof. AyĢe Öncü made insightful comments on earlier drafts of the thesis, and provided critical advice that greatly improved the final product. Faculty and friends at Sabancı Univeristy also deserve mention for a superb scholarly atmosphere. Finally, I would like to thank my wife and our kids, who have been a great source of joy, for making this whole process a pleasant journey. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I .......................................................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1 ............................................................................................................................................... 2 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 2 1.1. Aims of the Study .................................................................................................................. 3 CHAPTER 2 ............................................................................................................................................... 7 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................................. 7 2.1. Normative Considerations .................................................................................................. 9 2.2. Empirical Literature ............................................................................................................ 22 2.3. Explaining Parallelism ........................................................................................................ 25 2.4. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 31 CHAPTER 3 ............................................................................................................................................. 33 METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................................... 33 3.1. Political Parallelism and Its Components ....................................................................... 33 3.2. Empirical Study of Press-Party Parallelism .................................................................... 36 3.3. Methodology Used in This Study ..................................................................................... 47 PART II ...................................................................................................................................................... 70 CHAPTER 4 ............................................................................................................................................. 71 HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARALLELISM IN THE TURKISH PRESS ..................... 71 4.1. Political Parallelism in First Turkish Newspapers – Until the First Constitutional Period (1831 - 1876) ................................................................................................................... 72 4.2. Political Parallelism in the First Constitutional Period and the Reign of Abdulhamid II (1876-1908) ...................................................................................................... 77 4.3. Political Parallelism in the Second Constitutional Period (1908-1918) ..................... 80 4.4. Political Parallelism During the War of Independence (1918-1923) ......................... 83 4.5. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and the Press ............................................................................ 86 4.6. Political Parallelism in the Early Republican Era (1923-1931) ................................... 88 4.7. Political Parallelism in One-Party Era (1931-1946) ...................................................... 90 4.8. Political Parallelism in Transition to Democracy (1946-1950) ................................... 92 4.9. Political Parallelism in the Democratic Party Era (1950-1960) .................................. 95 4.10. Political Parallelism in 1960s, Beginnings of Class Politics (1961-1970) ................ 97 4.11. Political Parallelism in 1970s, Left-Rigth Polarization (1974-1980) ...................... 100 4.12. Political Parallelism in 1980s, ANAP Governments (1983-1991) ......................... 102 4.13. Political Parallelism in 1990s, Coalition Governments (1991-2002) ..................... 104 4. 14. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 107 CHAPTER 5 ........................................................................................................................................... 109 POLITICAL PARALLELISM IN THE BRITISH PRESS 1945 - 2005 ............................ 109 5.1. Periodization .....................................................................................................................