Syrian 'Refugees' In Printed Press: Construction Of Rational And Emotinal Justifications Of Discriminatory Discourses

This study problematizes the role of mainstream media in dissemination and justification of dicriminatory discourses against Syrian refugees in Turkey. Within the scope of the study, news stories and columns published in three mainstream newspapers (Zaman, Posta and Hürriyet), which have been selected according to their circulation number, in the period from 2011 April, when the first asylum seekers began to seek aylum in Turkey until the end of 2014, when the total number of Syrian asylum seekers exceeded two million. The fundamental supposition of the study is that the mainstream media operated within similar frameworks during the reproduction of discriminatory discourses against asylum seekers. Within the scope of the study, the news stories and columns published in these newspapers have been classified according to their topics, themes and how Syrian asylum seekers are portrayed in these stories and columns in order to have a better understanding of how the presence of Syrian asylum seekers in Turkey is problematized in the newspapers. In the second part of the study, the discouses in the news stories are analysed to reveal which words are used to describe the asylum seekers and on what grounds the content in these newspapers that reproduce the discriminatory opinions and judgments about asylum seekers is justified. In an endeavour to answer these questions, the study follows van Dijk's critical discourse analysis method to focus on the macro and micro structure of news stories and to analyse the interpretive framework of the discriminatory discourses against asylum seekers. The main findings of the study are that the presence of Syrian asylum seekers in Turkey are "problematized" on four main discursive domains oriented at constructing the rational justifications, emotional justifications of discrimination as well as rationalisation of emotions: In the news stories portraying Syrian asylum seekers as a "threat", this portrayal is used to criticize the foreign policy of the government, the asylum seekers, on the other hand, are associated with their economic burden and problems related to security. Secondly, the presence of Syrian asylum seekers in Turkey is "objectified" through an emphasis on how much Money has been spent, how much aid has been provided and how many asylum seekers are in Turkey without any regard to violation of rights and/or human consequences the issue. Thirdly, a discursive framework which "sentimentalize" the reactions against the presence of asylum seekers in Turkey, their conditions and their "excessive visibility" in cities.