Media coverage by analysis of the election campain March 28, 2004 local elections in Turkey

Communication can be defined as the process by which individuals share information,ideas and attitudes. In mass communication, professional communicators usetechnological devices known as mass media to communicate over great distances toinfluence large audiences. Several basic components make up the communicationprocesses which are presented as the source, the message, the channel and the receiver.In mass media the source is often a professional communicator who shapes the message tobe shared. The message is whatever the source attempts to share with someone else. Thechannel is the way in which we send our message and the receiver is the person withwhom the message is intended to be shared.The mass media are essential to the conduct of elections. An election is not only aboutcasting a vote, but also having adequate information about parties, policies, candidates andthe election process itself so that the voters can make an informed choice.Today most people get information from television more than the other communicationchannels including the information about politics. This gives television an influentialpower on the audience. This power is valid for election campaigns too. That?s whypolitical parties and the leaders appear on TV by advertisements, meetings, debates orinterviews in order to reach the voters.This article is a report on finding out the relationship between media, politics and theindividuals by the analysis of ?28th March Local Elections 2004?. While doing thisresearch our aim is to prove the manipulating power of media on political attitudes ofvoters. Our coverage is television channels from different media groups which wereobserved daily for one month till the Election Day. By indirect data collecting we reach toresults that are going to be examined afterwards.More briefly we find out that the ruling party is supported mostly by media groups thanthe others which also support our hypotheses too for all cases. The mean for cases is; allprime time news (as the covering for the number of news and the durations) and contentof the messages given by the leaders, and the parties.