thesis
Representing Turkey
- Publication date
- 1 January 2015
- Publisher
- __Abstract__
A
remarkably
rich
body
of
literature
analyses
the
political
representation
of
Turkey.
The
scholarly
debate
is,
still
limited
to
scrutinizing
the
dominant
media
discourse
on
Turkey’s
potential
European
Union
membership.
In
Representing
Turkey,
the
research
moves
beyond
the
prevailing
political
media
representations
by
widening
the
scope
and
looking
at
lifestyle
representations
in
three
core
themes
‘travel’,
‘romance
tourism’,
and
‘sports’.
Based
on
a
qualitative
content
analysis
of
British
broadsheet
and
tabloid
newspapers,
the
research
addresses
how
British
print
media
construct
and
circulate
views
about
Turkey
in
lifestyle
news
texts?
How
and
why
Turkey
is
evaluated
as
a
‘fascinating’
travel
destination
for
British
tourists?
How
tabloid
journalists
make
sense
of
the
contradicting
social
categories
and
power
relations
between
mature
British
women
and
their
younger
Turkish
lovers,
with
respect
to
age,
gender
and
economic
position?
How
journalists
portray
the
Turkish
national
football
team,
and
why
the
Turkish
football
fans
are
portrayed
as
violent
supporters
in
sports
news?
Examining
the
power
and
politics
of
Turkey’s
representation
in
popular
news,
the
research
demonstrates
that
lifestyle
news
are
not
necessarily
soft
and
uncritical
by
definition;
they
shed
new
light
on
how
national
identity
is
projected
in
such
news
texts.
At
a
macro-‐level,
the
three
empirical
case
studies
demonstrate
that
the
British
press
treatment
of
Turkey
facilitates
the
promotion
of
the
old
understanding
of
the
cultural
superiority
and
dominance
of
Britain.
This
reflects
that
Turkey
is
commodified
in
various
forms.
This
also
triggers
debates
on
the
inequalities
and
disparities
in
the
global
political,
economic
and
cultural
context.
