The Sphere of Consensus in a Polarized Media System: The Case of Turkey During the Catastrophic Coup Attempt

Authors

  • Emre Iseri Yasar University
  • Eser Şekercioglu Freelance ‎Data Analyst
  • Ugur Cevdet Panayirci İstanbul Şehir University

Keywords:

political communication, framing, content analysis, media systems, authoritarian regimes, catastrophic event, Turkey

Abstract

How does a highly polarized media system respond to a catastrophic event? The July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey provides fertile ground to examine how a catastrophic event has shaped the editorial policies of news media outlets in a highly polarized media system. This article hypothesizes that, mainly due to the peculiarities of the Turkish media system, even at the time of a catastrophic event, the framing strategies of media outlets converge only to a limited degree on a sphere of consensus. Adopting a content analysis methodology, we analyze the framing strategies of four national newspapers affiliated with specific sociopolitical camps (the pro-government Sabah, the moderate Hürriyet, and the oppositional Sözcü and Cumhuriyet). We reach the counterintuitive conclusion that these news outlets used different framing strategies in the immediate aftermath of the coup attempt and that the gap between them widened over the period of analysis.

Author Biographies

Emre Iseri, Yasar University

Assoc.Prof. Emre İşeri is the chair of Department of International Relations  at Yaşar University, İzmir. Before joining to Yaşar University, Dr.İşeri had been a full-time lecturer  at Kadir Has University for four years. Dr.İşeri also taught at Bahcesehir University as a part-time lecturer. His areas of research include International Political Economy, Political Communication, Energy Policy, and Turkish Foreign Policy. İşeri has published academic articles in numerous books and journals both in Turkey and abroad, including Geopolitics, JBNES, South European Society and Politics, European Journal of Communication , Energy Policy, Evironment and Planning C: Politics and Space, Turkish Studies,etc. İşeri has most recently completed a nation project on political communication and send its research output to a relevant journal to be published as a full-article.  Office Phone: +90-232-570 70 70 E-mail: emre.iseri@yasar.edu.tr

Eser Şekercioglu, Freelance ‎Data Analyst

Dr.Eser Şekercioğlu (Ph.D.,Stony Brook University,2008) , Freelance ‎Data Analyst at IrelandEmail: eser.sekercioglu@gmail.comMobile Phone: +353873745700

Ugur Cevdet Panayirci, İstanbul Şehir University

Asst.Prof.Cevdet Panayırcı is a full time lecturer of Department of Communication at İstanbul Şehir University. He  received his undergraduate degree in 2003 from the department of Public Relations and Advertising at İstanbul University and his MA from the department of public relations at Marmara University. He earned his Ph.D. in 2009 from Marmara University with his dissertation entitled “Postmodernism, Culture and Advertising: Discourse of diet product advertising”. His areas of research include political communication, cultural studies, marketing communication practices.Office Phone: +90 44 44 0 34Emial: 

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Published

2019-03-26

Issue

Vol. 13 (2019)

Section

Articles

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