The (Re]production of conservatism in conservative media in Turkey :|an analysis of Yeni Şafak and Sabah newspapers in the AKP period

Abstract

This dissertation scrutinizes how conservative values are produced by the mainstream, progovernment media in Turkey in the AKP period. Adopting Teun A. Van Dijk’s discursive, socio-cognitive approach to news production, the news content of two national conservative newspapers, Sabah and Yeni Şafak, are analyzed under four main themes - education, youth, women and family, and culture - that are critical for measuring the nature and scale of conservatism as an ideology (re)produced by the pro-government, main-stream media. The research reveals that media in Turkey plays an important role in producing, enabling, and promoting the hegemonic conservative ideology, put forward by the AKP government. The textual and linguistic analysis of the news stories, editorials, and columns produced in this particular media suggests that conservative ideology in Turkey rests on the values of Islam, a severe dislike and a grudge against the secular republic, and a strong interest in Turk-ish history and culture of the pre-republican period. This conservative ideol-ogy pines a religious upbringing for the youth, a society that rests on a traditional family structure that reinforces conventional gender roles, and a social life in and outside of the home that reflects local and national traditions, cul-ture, and values.