A study on framing of constitutional change in television news: Sample event 16 April 2017 referandum

Informing thepublic during referendum processes involving various constitutio-nal amendments or regulations is under the responsibility of the media as far as the poli-tical parties are concerned. Intheprocess of referencing, especially the news media plays a decisive role in the political decisions of the mass of voters by transmitting political messages produced by political and social actors through news. The fact that the news is presented in the political-economic interest relation without being transmitted to the audience reveals the fact that the news media should be questioned as a channel to be reached, especially in the election periods. The news media is functioning by selecting the reality and regulating mechanism, by highlighting certain issues, making them im-portant, and determining how to think about the topic. This mechanism is explained by the 'framing' theory, which causes individuals to identify any event or context percepti-ons and viewpoints. For this reason, it constitutesthe 'framing' theory that treats the the-oretical basis of the study as a dynamic phenomenon that is constantly reproduced, rat-her than a given and constant structure like the social field. Moving from this, it is the aim of this research to reveal how the television news is framed in the Constitutional amendment referendum of April 16, 2017 and which political beliefs and policies sup-port the television channels that provide these frameworks. In the study, the 10-day Main News Bulletins between 6-15 April 2017 before the April 16, 2017 Constitutional amendment referendum were analyzed by news framing method for the TRT 1 channels that broadcast public channels with ATV and Public TV from national channels. The result of the survey is a frame of 'Terrorized No-Voters' framed for the de-finition of 'imaginary other' shaped by the rhetoric of political power, the frame of 'One Man Regime' which is spread by the main opposition and emphasizes 'interventionist future imagination' the 'stateaffair' frameworks, which will cause disturbance in the 'yes' decision of the conservative-nationalist constitution, have shaped the news story.