Representing Turkey

Abstract

A remarkably rich body of literature analyses the political representation of Turkey. The scholarly debate is, still limited to scrutinizing the dominant media discourse on Turkey’s potential European Union membership. In Representing Turkey, the research moves beyond the prevailing political media representations by widening the scope and looking at lifestyle representations in three core themes ‘travel’, ‘romance tourism’, and ‘sports’. Based on a qualitative content analysis of British broadsheet and tabloid newspapers, the research addresses how British print media construct and circulate views about Turkey in lifestyle news texts? How and why Turkey is evaluated as a ‘fascinating’ travel destination for British tourists? How tabloid journalists make sense of the contradicting social categories and power relations between mature British women and their younger Turkish lovers, with respect to age, gender and economic position? How journalists portray the Turkish national football team, and why the Turkish football fans are portrayed as violent supporters in sports news? Examining the power and politics of Turkey’s representation in popular news, the research demonstrates that lifestyle news are not necessarily soft and uncritical by definition; they shed new light on how national identity is projected in such news texts. At a macro-­‐level, the three empirical case studies demonstrate that the British press treatment of Turkey facilitates the promotion of the old understanding of the cultural superiority and dominance of Britain. This reflects that Turkey is commodified in various forms. This also triggers debates on the inequalities and disparities in the global political, economic and cultural context.