Representation of the Middle East in the western-based international media (A reading on international news agencies)

In today's world, very significant developments are taking place in the field of communication. The most important of these developments is that communication is increasing and moving to a global dimension. With the digitalization of mass media, the connection between place and time has been broken, and information from sources that are not spatially accessible can be transmitted and accessed instantly or digitally. This situation has not only accelerated the circulation of information but also made it easier for individuals to access information. With the development of communication technologies, the importance of mass media has increased, and the field of prevalence has expanded even more. Thanks to these tools, news and information circulation has now crossed national borders and moved to international dimensions. Today, international news agencies are among the most essential tools that carry news and information to the international dimension as it has been in the past. On the one hand, international news agencies provide the flow of information to society through the news they produce and circulate, while on the other hand, they try to establish a world that they can manage as they wish. International news circulation is carried out through the Western-based Reuters, Associated Press (AP) and Agence France Press (AFP) worldwide. In other words, international news circulation flows from developed countries to developing or underdeveloped countries unevenly and unequally. Countries with advanced communication technology and strong political and economic aspects have strengthened their sovereignty by establishing communication tools under their control and spreading their influence and superiority. In this study, the news about six Middle East countries, which are Turkey, Israel, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, were sampled through three major Western-based international news agencies (Reuters, AP, AFP), and a content analysis was made by using qualitative and quantitative methods. With this study, it has been tried to determine how Western-based international news agencies tell the Middle East to the whole world by means of the news that they produce and circulate.