Analysis of perception management strategies in audience control and control (Example of Turkey in the pandemic process)

In this study, we aim to reveal what kind of elements the perception policy created by the political authority on the mass contains; An enlightening literature has emerged in the context of how objects are perceived and made sense of by individual experiences, how perceptions are reflected in attitudes and behaviors, the dimensions of the relationship between visible reality and perceived reality, how perceptions are managed, rhetorical elements and persuasion methods, mass characteristics and management, power, discourse, ideology and hegemony. has been placed. Based on all these, in the first period of the Covid-19 virus determined in the critical situation sample, the elements of the perception policy on the mass were analyzed through 14 speech texts consisting of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's speeches after the address to the nation and the cabinet meeting. What kind of perception method strategies used by the political power in Turkey during the pandemic process was analyzed using the MAXQDA Analitic program over discourse elements. The findings were made in accordance with Norman Fairclough's "Critical Discourse Analysis" method. In the light of the results obtained in the research, it has been seen that the political power in Turkey has benefited from perception management strategies in terms of convincing the target audience during the pandemic process. The analyzes made indicate that the discourse in the period when the pandemic process was most intense in the context of health and economy in relation to the agenda, and the perception management strategies that were used most intensively in these contexts; The elements of "measurement, focus on the result, show evidence, compare, base on an expert, present conditions and conditions, give hope, emphasis on unity, justification, emphasis on stability, compliance with values, approach beyond expectation, appealing to emotions, basing on the past" have been identified. Finally, it has been revealed what kind of language the political power uses at the point of controlling and supervising the target audience in times of crisis and what kind of perception management strategies are preferred for the target audience in the discourse used.