Representation of Turkey in the British print media: to be or not to be European

This research analyses the representation of Turkey in four British broadsheets (the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, the Independent and the Times) as well as their Sunday sister papers between 2007-2013. Using the concepts of self and other as a theoretical basis, this research seeks to determine whether Turkey, a predominantly Muslim, secular and partially Westernised EU candidate, was represented as a part of the European Self or as an Oriental Other in British broadsheets during the time period specified. As well as defining modern Turkey’s unique position on the Self-other axis of Europe in the context of British quality media, the research examines how applicable Edward Said’s theory of Orientalism is to the Turkish example. Taking Turkey’s multifaceted national identity and Britain’s exceptionalist attitude towards Europe (as well as the British media’s prejudices about Islam) into consideration, the research goes on to demonstrate that the straight-forward, binary understanding of Self-Other relationships in Said’s Orientalism is not applicable to the Turkish example. Instead, the research utilises the concept of Nesting Orientalisms (created by Bakić-Hayden to explain the self-other relationships within Europe) in the analysis and concludes that Turkey was perceived and represented as an agreeable, useful yet still inferior Model Other in British media texts during the time period analysed in this study. The research, which consists of a quantitative content analysis conducted on 731 news items and a qualitative textual analysis conducted on 150 representative news articles, 60 editorials and 10 front-page stories, creates the most detailed map of Turkey’s coverage in the British print media to date as well as providing continuity to the existing relevant literature.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

City University London

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Bora, Birce

• P Language and Literature