Media populism in Turkey: A discourse-historical analysis of Birgün and Yeni̇ Akit Newspapers

The purpose of this study is to examine how populism is constructed in news discourse through the concept of media populism. The phenomenon of media populism is explained through a two-dimensional model: "populism by the media" and "populism through the media". The study focused on whether media populism can be observed in Turkey. Data were collected from 31 newspapers published during the Presidential and Parliamentary General Elections on June 24, 2018. The collected data were initially analyzed using the "thin populism" approach proposed by Jager and Walgrave (2007). Through the examination using the two-dimensional model of media populism, it was concluded that national newspapers in Turkey produced news based on both dimensions of media populism during the June 24, 2018 Elections. In order to determine how populism is produced in the news discourse of newspapers, Birgün and Yeni Akit were selected as representatives of right-wing and left-wing populism. Data obtained from the two newspapers were analyzed using Discourse Historical Approach, which is a type of Critical Discourse Analysis. The analysis revealed that both newspapers employed polarized representations based on binary oppositions. It was found that the construction of the "true people" and others was accomplished through strategies such as positive and negative attribution, elevation, exclusion, emphasis, concealment, and legitimation, using the "us vs. them" schema of polarization. Both newspapers utilized strategies such as nomination, predication, argumentation, perspectivation, and intensifying or mitigating in the discursive construction of internal and external groups. As a result, it was determined that both newspapers used the discriminatory elements of populism in their news discourse.