Turkish News

Survivors cried out for help from within mountains of debris as first responders contended with rain and snow. Seismic activity continued to rattle the region, including another jolt nearly as powerful as the initial quake. Workers carefully pulled away slabs of concrete and reached for bodies as desperate families waited for news of loved ones.

In our news wrap Monday, deadly fighting erupted between Turkish and Syrian forces in northwestern Syria. It started after Turkey sent a military convoy into Idlib province and Syria responded with shelling. Also, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is vowing action after an Islamic extremist who had been released early from prison wounded two people in a London stabbing attack on Sunday.

Turkish News

DOWNLOAD 🔥 https://blltly.com/2y7ZQH 🔥

In the day's other news: The final arguments have come and gone in the impeachment trial of President Trump. The U.S. Senate, acting as the jury, heard today from both sides. Now the senators get to speak their minds before a Wednesday on whether to convict or acquit.

This article presents a discussion about the representation of Syrian refugees in Turkish news media during the COVID-19 pandemic. Media play a critical role during pandemics by affecting values, opinions, public knowledge about stigmatized groups. When media ignore and stereotypically represent a social group, the social value of the group decreases, and their problems are trivialized.

I analyzed data provided by Media Monitoring Center which is an independent media company in Turkey. Sample was selected to reveal news representation of Syrian refugees between March 11, 2020 (the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Turkey) and August 20, 2020 (the time of this research). Mostly watched television evening (prime) news, the most widely circulated newspapers, and the most visited online news platforms were analyzed. By using content analysis method, the news stories about Syrian refugees were examined.

Results of the study demonstrate that Syrian refugees were symbolically annihilated by Turkish news media during the COVID-19 pandemic. The concealment of information and symbolic annihilation of disadvantaged groups could potentially cause health disparities and irreparable harm to public health. Moreover, inequities exacerbate when predicaments of stigmatized groups are ignored in the news media. Further studies are needed to reveal the impact of the media on health disparities among stigmatized groups during the pandemics.

In this study, first, the role of the media during pandemics/epidemics will be discussed. Second, representation of Syrian refugees in Turkish news media will be exhibited. Third, the assistance for Syrian refugees since their access to Turkey will be delved into. Fourth, the research on the representation of Syrian refugees in Turkish media during the pandemic will be presented in detail. Lastly, symbolic annihilation of Syrian refugees in Turkish news media will be elaborated.

A study shows that media coverage cannot be responsible for the control of transmission of the epidemic by itself, but it helps shorten the time of the secondary peak by alerting and making aware of the public to the virus ([31] p50). Regarding this, media have a considerable effect on the pattern and the scale of transmission ([32] p163). When media guide the public, it can mitigate emerging infections during the early stages of an outbreak ([33] p9). The effects of the media coverage become more significant when visibility of issue increases and when news stories are consistently biased in one direction ([34] p15).

A survey was conducted in 12 provinces of Turkey to reveal the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on employment of Turkish citizens and Syrian refugees, in May 2020. Results indicated that Syrian employees became more fragile than Turkish employees and women suffered the most. Loss of income was 88% for Syrian refugees, but it was only 50% for Turkish citizens. The rate of dismissal and unpaid leave of Syrians was higher than Turkish citizens. Nearly half of Syrian refugees lost their livelihood for an indefinite length of time. It was revealed that most of the refugees (90%) could not benefit from the COVID-19 support [71]. Content analysis of Turkish news media will demonstrate underrepresentation of the plight of the refugees in the research period.

In this research, the representation of the Syrian refugees in Turkish news media was analyzed through content analysis method. Content analysis is a research technique which includes selecting and collecting data, creating categories, coding rules, conducting coding, analyzing the findings, and presenting a conclusion. Content analysis is defined as breaking texts into categories based on a coding frame [72]. Content analysis is widely used in health and social research. It is applied for drawing a conclusion by systematically and objectively determining characteristics of messages. Researchers conduct content analysis to quantify and find meaningful connections, make inferences, create comparable amounts to distinctive features of messages in qualitative data such as texts. Content analysis includes both qualitative and quantitative research.

Fox TV news is the most trusted evening (prime) news with the highest rating, but unexpectedly, it did not mention Syrian refugees at all. In one of the news stories on Kanal D, the police found an illegal health center, delivery room, and pharmacy run by Syrian refugees. It was emphasized that these facilities could pose a risk to public health. Syrian refugees were portrayed as the direct cause of unhealthy conditions, and they were blamed for ignoring basic hygiene during the pandemic. There were no remarks regarding why refugees had to consult medical care in these facilities.

Szc, as the only anti-government newspaper in this research, criticized the large population of Syrian refugees. Syrian refugees were portrayed as a threat, source of problem, and cause for the spread of pandemic. The lack of information on COVID-19 related issues of Syrian refugees were underlined. In an interview in Szc, journalists claimed that asking questions to the government about COVID-19 and Syrian refugees was almost constrained. Szc claimed that the real population of Syrian refugees was over 5 million.

News stories ignored the plight of Syrian refugees and socio-economic issues in general. However, socialist newspapers focused on socio-economic issues of Syrian refugees. One of them was Birgn, which published a few news stories mentioning problems such as lack of medical care, poverty, negligence, educational problems, and poor working conditions. The other socialist newspaper Evrensel wrote that they tried to get information about refugees from the government institutions. However, they stated that they were either not answered or political authorities said that they did not have any information.

The current study demonstrated that Syrian refugees were symbolically annihilated by Turkish news media in the research period during the pandemic. It was indicated that the concealment of information and symbolic annihilation of disadvantaged groups could potentially cause health disparities and irreparable harm to public health. Moreover, inequities exacerbate when predicaments of stigmatized groups are ignored in the news media. However, accurate and vital information on pandemics and stigmatized groups such as refugees can increase access to healthcare and reduce the spread of infectious diseases globally. Media can promote health equity through disseminating more stories about health disparities and representing all disadvantaged groups.

I would like to thank Media Monitoring Center for allowing to use database of news stories about Syrian refugees. I would also like to thank my supportive colleague Assoc. Prof. Cemil Boyraz for his valuable comments and insights.

The Turkish lira has fallen almost 50% against the US dollar over the past year, and these challenging economic conditions have hit newspapers already reeling from a 14% decline in print consumption since 2020. Faced with falling revenues and increased paper and other costs, many newspapers are struggling to survive.

Political censorship places additional pressures on independent media. Online news outlets continue to be occasionally blocked or asked to remove content deemed inappropriate or offensive. For example, stories about abuses of government contracts are either blocked or removed by rapid court decisions.2 While independent outlets regularly cover the impact of inflation, pro-government outlets focus on more positive news, such as the increase in pensions. Further, prominent independent journalists are constantly detained or face lawsuits for reporting on issues not approved by the government.3 For instance, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency of Turkey, along with other organisations, lodged criminal complaints against 26 individuals, including several journalists, who had criticised the state of the Turkish economy on social media. Even more concerning is the increasing physical violence against journalists. Several journalists were physically attacked because of their reporting. In February, the owner of a local newspaper which reported on local corruption was murdered in his office.

However, false and misleading information online remains a widespread concern (62%) and our respondents report mainly having seen false information on politics (53%) and Coronavirus (46%). Social media platforms continue to work with fact-checkers in Turkey. TikTok, which is increasingly popular in Turkey (21% report using TikTok for general purposes), started collaborating with Teyit, a Turkish fact-checking organisation which also works with other platforms, such as Facebook and WhatsApp. Some outlets, such as Hrriyet, have also ventured into TikTok but the popularity of news content on this platform remains to be seen.

Amongst the major brands, Fox TV News continues to be both the most popular and trusted news source in Turkey. Szc, an anti-government newspaper, and CNN Trk, the Turkish-language franchise of CNN, are also popular. Online news consumption follows a similar pattern to offline consumption, with prominent mainstream and opposition brands leading the way. 006ab0faaa