Instructing history and its relationship with media: The reflection of national ceremonies on newspapers and its role on constructing national identity (2001?2007)

National identity is not only the differences of a nation in international platforms, but also the similarities of the society. One of the ways to keep the feeling of national identity or to make it stronger is undoubtedly national holidays. These are the days when the people of a country come together once again and experience the togetherness deeply. In such days people of each country share the honor of a success or the suffer of a failure.By realizing the importance of the feeling of belonging to adopt the feeling of national identity and to make people to create an ?us?, written press is an effective force which covers different areas from culture to lifestyle, idea to judgement. It can be easily said that this power is the most common, cheapest, easiest way when it comes to make people get informed and reach information. In the light of this information the role of the written press with the news including historical facts and information cannot be underestimated as it has such a big role on creating a national identity.For the research in order to clarify this effect all the data on Zaman, Cumhuriyet, Sabah and Hürriyet the national days between the years of 2001?2007 are searched and the parts that are thought to be important are noted down. These dates are divided and collected under three main sections: news and comments, articles, caricatures and the possible influence of these sections on national identity is searched.At the end of the research, it is seen that the newspapers (mentioned above) have effective roles on person in terms of attitude, faith and knowledge both for history education and national identity. Moreover it is clearly recognized that these publications of newspapers affect people?s ability to synthesize, analyze, interpret, recognize cause and effect relations in historical events and make decisions.