Visual Framing of Political Candidates: Case Study of the 2014 Turkish Presidential Election Campaign

Abstract

In the context of political communication, political campaigns are the periods when political bias in the news media comes to light. This is reflected in news photos and other visual contents as well as newspaper texts. Visual framing, a newer area in framing theory and research, helps us understand how media frames visual images of political candidates. This paper analyzes the photographs of the presidential candidates in the 2014 Turkish presidential election campaign by using the visual framing analysis method. The data for this study comprises photographs from ten daily national newspapers belonging to different media groups representative of the Turkish press. The results reveal the intensity of visual framing bias related to political bias and polarization in the Turkish press.