The presentation of ethnic identities in the Turkish press from an intercultural communication context: Qualitative and quantitative analysis of news concerning Armenians

This study explores from an intercultural communication viewpoint how ethnic identities as a relation to a different culture and identity are presented by the Turkish press, in news coverage related to Armenians. In the context of intercultural communication; stereotypes, prejudices, ethno-centrism, we/them discriminations and otherization function as barriers between different cultures and identities in communication and interaction processes and thus constitute an important perspective for the representation of differences on the media. To gain insight into this process, newspaper content from the 2000?s covering the Armenian Genocide Act that has been passed by the French Parliament and the conference about Armenians at the Bilgi University- have been content and critical discourse analyzed. The dailies Hürriyet, Cumhuriyet and Zaman have been taken as samples and the issues in question have been studied in particular intervals.The findings of the content analysis revealed that implicit we/them emphasis that precipitates stereotypes, prejudices, ethnocentrism and otherization appeared predominantly in the 544 news stories and articles. As for the critical discourse analysis, the studied news about the first issue was dominated by a discourse that emphasized Turkey?s political, economical and cultural reactions against France. The analysis of the second issue showed that the news discourse was polarized into two opponent camps with news actors displaying a negative or positive approach to the conference.