Local press attitude in the 2023-2024 elections: The case of Hakkari

The aim of this research to analyse the attitude of the local press during election process. In this context, the study examines the extent to which canditates and political parties were included in the 2023 presidential and parliamentary election and the 2024 local elections in Hakkari, which political party and actors were featured and how ıt affected public opinion. In this respect the research analyzes how the local press adopted an agenda-setting policy and highlighted certain issues during 2023 presidential and parlimentary elections, as well as the 2024 local elections. Accordingly, It was confirmed that in the 2023 presidential elections Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was widely covered by the media while Ak Party was widely covered in parlimentary elections. A similar tendency was showed during the 2024 local elections, where İsmet Ölmez, the mayoral candidate of the Ak Party in Hakkari was shown to be widely covered in the local press compared to other candidates. In spite of this result, Ak Party was unable to win either the parliamentary elections or the municipal elections. This situation shows that local press in Hakkari abandoned the priciple of objectivity by giving prominence to certain candidates; however, these editorial policied remained limited in shaping voter behavior. In the research, the Qualitative Research Method was used, and content analysis was employed in the process of data acquisition. The news from media outlets operating in Hakkari and digital news websites,covering the election periods,was reviewed and the data were evaluated in tabular form. Consequently, although the local press in Hakkari abandoned the principle of objectivity by giving prominence to certin candidates, It was shown that ıt remained limited in shaping voter behavior.