Critical discourse analysis: The discourse of Pastor Brunson crisis of pro-government newspapers in Turkey

Through the analysis of news discourses, Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), makes it possible to understand how power relations are formed in the media, and how power is reproduced and legitimized in the media. In this study, the news of the "Pastor Brunson Crisis" between the USA and Turkey in 2018 in the pro-government press (Sabah, Star and Yeni Şafak) were analyzed with the CDS method. Based on T. A. Van Dijk's socio-cognitive approach; themes, actors, direct quotations from actors, recontextualization, word preferences, and syntactic analysis were made. In order to reveal how the pro-government press approves the power policies and how it contributes to the reproduction and legitimation of power; in the first part of the thesis, theoretical approaches focusing on news discourse and the concept of power are discussed. In the second part, the formation process of the pro-AKP government press has been examined since the beginning of neoliberal policies in Turkey. In the third part of the thesis, the news of the Pastor Brunson crisis was analyzed in three periods. These periods are as follows: "Threats of sanctions after July 26", "Blacklisting of Turkish Ministers by the USA after August 1" and "Releasing Pastor Brunson after October 12". In the first period of the threats of sanctions, the newspapers have the discourses that "Pastor Brunson is imprisoned on charges of espionage and terrorism and is associated with FETO" and "The threats of the US administration can not be accepted and Turkey's determination on this issue"; In the period when Turkish ministers were blacklisted by the US administration, newspapers have the nationalist discourse that "All the Turkey has a rightful reaction against the US"; and finally, during the release of Pastor Brunson, newspapers have the discourse that "The Turkish judiciary gave an independent decision in the Pastor Brunson case and did not give credit to the US threats". Pro-government newspapers, which recontextualize the discourses of power and make them their own discourses, have thus reproduced and legitimized the power of the government.