Running Head: TURKISH NEWS COVERAGE OF K U R D S 1 Turkish News Coverage of Kurds: The Blurring Line between the Left and Right-wing Newspapers Merve Erdogan Student ID: 10602577 ‘Master’s Thesis’ Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the degree of (Research) Master of Science in Communication Science Supervisor’s name: Penny Sheets Thibaut Date of completion: January 29, 2016 TURKISH NEWS COVERAGE OF KURDS 2 Abstract Media, as an ideological state apparatus, plays a critical role in depicting various groups in societies. The renderings of ethnic groups, races, and religions are often considered contentious disputes. For this reason, media portrayals of - commonly - subordinate collectives receive immense attention from Communication Science along with from Political and Social Sciences academics. As one sui-generis example, this study scrutinizes the media representation of Kurds, the second largest ethnic group living in Turkey. Although this subject has been well studied through a number of qualitative research methodologies, the literature scarcely covers an examination with quantitative research methodology. This subsequently undermines our ability to reach a systematic and replicable outcome. Therefore, for this analysis, a quantitative content analysis was conducted. 704 news articles from two opinion-leading Turkish print news outlets, Hürriyet and Sabah, from divergent ideological pillars, were coded to compare if they portray Kurds in a positive or a negative fashion. The findings suggest that notwithstanding these newspapers’ ideological affiliations, the news coverage of Kurds does not truly show a discrepancy from one newspaper to another. This suggests that, while it claims to be a pluralist system, the Turkish media system seems rather centralized concerning the portrayal of Kurds, regardless of the true political character of the newspapers. Nonetheless, the overall balance of positive/negative associations made in discussing Kurds in the news articles differs through the years 2010-2014. While this fluctuation in coverage cannot be attributed to newspaper ideology nor to major socio-political events, such as general elections and social unrest, it can be an outcome of a changing media landscape in Turkey. Thus, this study suggests that this complex issue requires much more scholarly attention in the future. Key words: Kurdish, Turkish, newspaper ideology, ethnic groups, media portrayals, quantitative content analysis TURKISH NEWS COVERAGE OF KURDS 3 Turkish News Coverage of Kurds: The Blurring Line between the Left and Right-wing Newspapers How certain ethnic groups in different countries are covered in different media outlets prompts scientific curiosity among numerous researchers from several scientific disciplines. Following much of this research, and grounded in Hallin and Mancini’s media systems framework (2004), this study focuses on a sui-generis case - Kurds, who constitute the second largest ethnic group living in Turkey. It is a critical opportunity for this study to understand the nature of certain news stories’ content that particularly involve a certain ethnic group, as well as how these news stories are framed. Previous studies pointed out that the Kurds were not visible in the mainstream state and media discourses (Somer, 2005b; Sezgin & Wall, 2005; Çeliker, 2009; Yeğen, 2007). Through socio-political changes over time (e.g. the military coup in 1980), the political discourse has transformed and consequently the visibility of Kurds in media texts has risen (Somer, 2005b). However, the portrayal of Kurds in media texts remained insufficiently studied (Demir & Zeydanlıoğlu, 2010). Moreover, these studies analysing (the media portrayals of) Kurds in particular, mostly out of the communication literature, employ qualitative research methodologies such as discourse analysis, and conduct analyses on one media outlet only (Somer, 2004, 2005b; Sezgin & Wall, 2005). Hence, they hardly offer an objective, systematic and replicable analysis of (the media portrayal) of Kurds. Therefore, this study aims to distinguish itself from existing scholarship on this topic by investigating if the Kurds are portrayed with positive or negative vocabularies in Turkish print media. It employs a quantitative research methodology, and offers a comparative approach with the inclusion of two ideologically different newspapers in the analyses. It tries to find out whether Kurds are portrayed differently in different newspapers and if the trends in portraying Kurds change over time and around certain times, for instance before or after elections or an event/incident involving Kurds. Two opinion-leading newspapers, Hürriyet – known to be an anti- government/ Republican/secular newspaper – and Sabah – known as a pro- government/conservative one – were compared in their coverage of Kurds. It expects that TURKISH NEWS COVERAGE OF KURDS 4 opposing political ideologies embraced by different media outlets could be an explanatory factor for how news stories are produced and published/broadcasted. This research has academic relevance due to its contribution to, especially, the communication literature, by providing an appropriate example for scholars interested in media portrayals of ethnic groups in other countries that have ethnic struggles or had them in the past. Moreover, the findings carry an immense socio-political importance since it has repercussion for the ongoing Kurdish-Turkish armed conflict. Understanding the nature of the Turkish media system as well as the dominant state and media discourses applied when referring to Kurds may provide valuable insights for Turkey’s future ethno-politics. It may also help Turkey to define its regional role in the Middle East, increasingly important due to the war in Syria causing many (Kurdish) refugees to cross-pass the Turkish-Syrian border. Theoretical Background Media, Society, and the Question of Representation Media plays a crucial societal function in helping the public to understand and interpret the world: how it is organized, structured and changed. To fulfil this function, media content usually carries hidden messages. McQuail (2010) argues that media content carries an ideology which was “decoded” in the messages of mass media (p.349). In other words, the message of the mass media is incorporated in written text or spoken words. Through these hidden ideological messages, “media conglomerates can help shape our ideologies” about certain topics, such as ethnic group perceptions (Berger, 2007, p.209; 2011, p.93). These messages, ideas and images can help the public make sense of much of their everyday experiences by simply applying primary frameworks (Goffman, 1974). Media may not be a mere observer, nor a mirror of situations, but mostly act as a meaning-creator; “a strong agent of ‘attitudinal’ effects dependent on cognitive schemas” (Panayırcı & İşeri, 2014, p.65; Scheufele & Tewksbury, 2007, p.12). Aligned with this argument, Shoemaker and Reese (1996) make a definition of framing - as a macro-construct – being modes of presentation that communicators use to present information in a particular manner which would resonate with their audiences’ existing schemas. To put differently, the media tend to TURKISH NEWS COVERAGE OF KURDS 5 selectively choose familiar cultural themes that would go along with audiences’ structured mind maps composed of their preconceived ideas and thoughts. Having this vital power of meaning creation in its hand, media tend to be selective in coverage, especially on controversial issues. As the most commonly used definition of framing by Entman features, the media tend to select some aspects of reality and render them more salient. In this way, it promotes a problem definition, as well as evaluations and interpretations of that particular problem (Entman, 2007). Entman (2007) further argues that framing can be used in the exercise of political power. Kinder and Sanders (1990) suggest that frames operate as “devices embedded in political discourse, invented and employed by political elites, often with an eye toward advancing their own interests or ideologies and intended to make favourable interpretations” (p.74). Therefore, one can claim that this media strategy is much needed by politics, especially to persuade the public to adopt a particular message (Panayırcı & İşeri, 2014). Political elites as well as public opinion makers “tend to manipulate the media to disseminate news in a manner that fosters their legitimizing discourse” and this, in turn, facilitates to perpetuate their legitimizing discourses (Panayırcı & İşeri, 2014, p.65). In other words, the ruling elite has a controlling function over the information that the public receives, in order to legitimize and maintain the power structures in the society (McQuail, 2010). Although journalistic professionalism necessitates an editorial autonomy and numerous journalists, mostly in northern (corporatist media model) countries where political interests are not intertwined in news production, claim to rejoice full journalistic autonomy; media in other models, that is instrumentalized by politics or business, can still be observed as reproducing hierarchies of power, especially in the domains of ethnicity, class, race and gender (Hallin & Mancini, 2004). This would also imply that journalists might incorporate bias in their language referring to these subordinate groups. In Marxist tradition, argue Shoemaker and Reese, the media is discussed as having relative autonomy (1996).