Media representation of migration to Turkey :|a diachronic perspective

Abstract

This thesis investigates the effects of empathic motives of the political power holders on the treatment and media representation of large groups of displaced people that arrived in Turkey between 1950 and 2017. It provides a diachronic analysis of the terms through which the print media and Turkish migration policies identified different groups of displaced people along with the themes of discussions that surfaced in the collocates of these terms. The findings suggest that the media identification of the displaced people depends on the societal predisposition towards them and political motives of the government at the time rather than the definitions in the law The narratives on Bulgarian Turks and Turkmens adapts a positively inclusionary tone, in line with Turkey’s economic and social motives of improving farming practices and orchestrating an ethnically and culturally homogenous population. The terms used in media and by political representatives correlate in this period. On the other hand, the representation of the Iraqi Kurds and the Romani in the media are highly avoidant and exclusionary; and similar terms are adapted once again by the government and the media.The representation of Syrians is a mixture of these tones and parallels the polarized opinions in the political context. Thus, strong parallels between the economic, political, and social motives of political power holders and the representation of displaced people in the media are observed.