Polarization in the Turkish Press: Framing the Social Movement in Iran

Abstract

This study examines the framing of the social movement in Iran launched on 29 December 2017, by analyzing the news texts of six national Turkish newspapers. It discusses the movement in the context of news framing, focusing on problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and treatment recommendation. The findings suggest that each newspaper has reported the social movement in Iran quite differently. The most obvious difference is that the left-wing, anti-government press mainly explained the events in terms of political, economic, and social factors while the right-wing, pro-government press attributed the events to ‘foreign forces’ and reflected the dominant discourse of political power while framing the news. Thus, the way Turkish newspapers frame a social movement outside the country reveals the intense polarization in the Turkish press.