Framing of freedom of expression on columns

This study aims at investigating how columnists frame freedom of expression in the newspapers. In accordance with this aim, 10 cases which are related to freedom of expression were selected between the years 2002 and 2007, and the columns were examined with the assumption that the media reconstruct the reality with various activities such as including, excluding, associating, making moral evaluations, promoting particular problem definitions, causal interpretations, and treatment recommendations.The first chapter of the thesis is dedicated to explain columnists who are conceptualized as symbolic elites in the Turkish press. In the second chapter, framing as the theoretical perspective of the thesis is evaluated. The third chapter is about analyzing the findings. Quantitative content analysis and frame analysis are used to examine 524 columns published in Hürriyet, Sabah, Zaman, Radikal, Yeni Şafak, Ortadoğu, Evrensel, and Cumhuriyet newspapers.The results show that, freedom of expression is generally framed positively; the media focus on events and persons rather than issues in trials of freedom of expression, and this causes victim centered framing; newspapers approach the trials with internal consistency; and there is external pluralism rather than internal pluralism in the Turkish newspapers.