Peace Journalism or War Journalism: Representation of Refugees in Turkish Media
Peace Journalism or War Journalism: Representation of Refugees in Turkish Media

Author(s): Arda Umut Saygın
Subject(s): Media studies, Geography, Regional studies, Communication studies, Present Times (2010 - today), Migration Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Turkey; migration; refugees; media; peace; war; journalism;
Summary/Abstract: Brutal conflicts in Middle-East and Africa has created a huge flow of migration to other countries which actually cause for Europe a serious refugee crisis since the II World War. In this process, due to its geographical region Turkey has become an important destination by refugees both for living in it and for using it as a transit point. Therefore, Turkish public is now familiar with the refugee issue because Turkey is hosting almost 3 million Syrian refugees, according to UN data (http://data.unhcr.org/ syrianrefugees/regional.php). By living in the same environment, refugees sometimes may face relatively little hostility and experience otherness in the public. On the other hand, there is also feeling in Turkish public which shows their philosophy of brotherhood that they have to accept the refugees in their lives because of the same cultural, religious and historical heritage. However, while it is possible to come across media contents about refugees almost every day, the mass media imposes a very dangerous picture about refugees. In the media, refugees mostly are seen as a problem, are shown with attention to the racist and intolerant events, and are not viewed with their painful living conditions. All these unfriendly approaches of mediaand its conflict orientation are the indicators of war journalism actually.

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