European Union debates in the public sphere: The case of news media

Public sphere indicates a forum or an arena which it congregates the society for common social issues and through media and communication public sphere creates a proper platform for discussions between public and the state. In the simplest functional term, media reflects public opinion against the state and therefore it is defined as the most appropriate area, where public sphere emerges. According to the political experiences of citizens, media is an area which makes it possible for actors and spokesmen to provide input for public discussions. News media is an arena in which political actors, civil society and even citizens can express views and make announcements.The role of media on transnationalisation debates in different European Union member countries and Europeanization of public sphere are the long standing discussion areas since the 1990?s. The role of media in Europeanization of Turkey, as a candidate country, is almost ignored by researchers and media professionals. In the framework of this study, we analyzed the claims of political actors, civil society, economic actors, and other interest groups in Turkish public sphere through media representation.The sources in the scope of this study are presented by analysing the three newspapers ?Cumhuriyet, Hürriyet, Zaman- which were chosen among the popular and prestigious newspapers of the years between 1999 and 2005.In the news pages of the selected 1045 newspaper copies, 1228 claims about European Union were detected and those claims were analysed with regard to 54 variables. According to the results, Turkish media has the traces of discursive Europeanization. This study also reveals that media is not the one to blame for the lukewarm relationship between EU and Turkey. The claims of media actors within the scope of the news on EU are more European than other political actors and more positive than other actors? claims.