Department of Informatics and Media Master’s Programme in Social Sciences, Digital Media and Society specialization Two-year Master’s Thesis Artificial Agendas: Polarization and Partisanship in the Turkish Mainstream Media through Fake News Ali İhsan Akbaş June 2019 1 PREFACE Writing a master thesis is a difficult process. However, it is easier when one feels the support of his beloved ones. I would like to thank my wife, Ayşe Gizem, who has endured all of my troubles during this process, and before. I am grateful to her. I am also grateful to my family, whose support and prays I always felt even from thousands of kilometers away. I would also like to thank Senior Lecturer Cecilia Strand, my thesis advisor. Her comments and recommendations really helped me in the process of writing. Lastly, I am thankful to the Swedish Institute, for providing this unforgettable opportunity of studying and learning in Sweden. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ............................................................................................................................................................... 2 LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................................................. 5 LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................................ 5 ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................................ 6 1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 7 1.1 BACKGROUND/CONTEXT ................................................................................................................... 10 1.2 DEFINITION OF KEY CONCEPTS ......................................................................................................... 12 1.2.1 Mainstream Media ......................................................................................................................... 12 1.2.2 Fake News ...................................................................................................................................... 14 1.3 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS ............................................................................................................... 14 2 LITERATURE REVIEW........................................................................................................................... 15 2.1 JOURNALISM .................................................................................................................................. 15 2.1.1 Journalism in a Pre-Digital Landscape ........................................................................................ 15 2.1.2 Journalism in the Digital Age ....................................................................................................... 16 2.2 NEWS SELECTION: CLASSICAL GATEKEEPING.................................................................. 17 2.2.1 Gatekeeping and Gatewatching in the Contemporary Media Landscape ................................... 19 2.3 MEDIA AND PUBLIC OPINION: THE AGENDA-SETTING .................................................... 22 2.3.1 Agenda-Setting in the Digital World ............................................................................................. 24 2.4 NEWS ON MAINSTREAM MEDIA: GATEKEEPING AND AGENDA-SETTING ................ 26 3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ............................................................................................................ 29 3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................................... 29 3.2 THE DISCOURSE THEORY .......................................................................................................... 30 3.3 DISCUSSIONS OVER FAKE NEWS.............................................................................................. 32 3.4 FORMS OF FAKE NEWS ................................................................................................................ 35 3.5 POLITICS AND NEWS MEDIA IN POLARIZED SETTINGS ................................................... 37 3.5.1 Media Content and News Media ................................................................................................... 37 3.5.2 Media Fragmentation and Partisan News .................................................................................... 39 3.5.3 Mainstream Media, Social Media, and Misinformation .............................................................. 40 3.6 MEANING OF FAKE NEWS IN THE CONTEXT OF POLARIZATION ................................. 41 4 METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH DESIGN .................................................................................... 45 4.1 DATA .................................................................................................................................................. 45 4.1.1 How Teyit Works?.......................................................................................................................... 45 4.1.2 Sampling ........................................................................................................................................ 50 4.1.3 Definition of Data Entries ............................................................................................................. 52 4.2 METHOD ........................................................................................................................................... 54 4.2.1 Qualitative Content Analysis ......................................................................................................... 54 4.2.2 Discourse Activity Schema ............................................................................................................ 55 4.3 ETHICS ............................................................................................................................................. 58 5 ANALYSIS .................................................................................................................................................. 60 5.1 FAKE NEWS AND TURKISH MAINSTREAM MEDIA ............................................................. 60 5.2 THEMES WITHIN FAKE NEWS ................................................................................................... 61 5.3 THEMES OF POLARIZATION ..................................................................................................... 63 5.3.1 Government-Opposition Divide ..................................................................................................... 63 5.3.2 Secular-Religious Divide ............................................................................................................... 74 5.3.3 Economy ......................................................................................................................................... 78 5.3.4 Education ....................................................................................................................................... 81 5.3.5 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 82 5.4 THEMES OF PARTISANSHIP ..................................................................................................... 83 5.4.1 Anti-Immigration ........................................................................................................................... 85 5.4.2 Anti-USA ........................................................................................................................................ 85 5.4.3 Anti-Israel ...................................................................................................................................... 87 3 5.4.4 FETO.............................................................................................................................................. 88 5.4.5 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 90 6 CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................ 92 6.1 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................. 92 6.2 DISCUSSION..................................................................................................................................... 94 6.2.1 The Problem of Fake News in the Turkish Media ....................................................................... 94 6.2.2 Implications of Media in Polarized Settings ................................................................................. 96 7 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................................... 98 APPENDIX.......................................................................................................................................................... 105 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEYIT ............................................................................................................... 105 4 LIST OF TABLES Table 1 - List of media owners