Selçuk iletiŞİM

Predicting the Image of Turkey and the Prime Minister Erdoğan… (68-75)
73
Table 5. Style of news coverage
Newspaper Name
Hürriyet
Cumhuriyet
Zaman
Yeni Şafak
Count
53
24
56
53
Fact/
Declaration
%within Newspaper Name
65,4%
38,1%
60,2%
60,2%
Count
28
39
35
33
Opinion/
Comment
%within Newspaper Name
34,6%
61,9%
37,6%
37,5%
Count
0
0
2
2
Unidentified
%within Newspaper Name
0%
0%
2,2%
2,3%
Count
81
63
93
88
Total
%within Newspaper Name
100%
100%
100%
100%
To  evaluate  the  tone  of  the  news  articles,  we
utilized a three fold categorization: positive,
neutral and negative. Table 6 shows that
Zaman and Yeni Şafak framed Davos incident
positively whereas Cumhuriyet reported on the
incident with significantly negative tone
(%74.6). Hürriyet,  on  the  other  hand  framed
the incident evenly as neutral and negative.
Therefore, there is a clear distinction between
newspapers in terms of their framing of the
incident with Hürriyet and Cumhuriyet  at  one
end and Zaman and Yeni Şafak at the other.
Table 6. Frames of news coverage
Newspaper Name
Hürriyet
Cumhuriyet
Zaman
Yeni Şafak
Count
14
2
66
65
Positive
%within Newspaper Name
17,3%
3,2%
71,0%
73,9%
Count
35
14
19
13
Neutral
%within Newspaper Name
43,2%
22,2%
20,4%
14,8%
Count
32
47
8
10
Negative
%within Newspaper Name
39,5%
74,6%
8,6%
11,4%
Count
81
63
93
88
Total
%within Newspaper Name
100%
100%
100%
100%
To identify the images of Turkey framed by
Hürriyet, Cumhuriyet, Zaman and Yeni Şafak
we classified selected news articles into 7 clus-
ters: Friend of Muslim countries, mediator in
the Middle East process, lost its role and objec-
tivity as a mediator in the Middle East, moving
away  from  the  West,  a  country  with  its  own
political will, key player in the region working
for the peace/human right, global actor. As
shown in Table 7, Zaman and Yeni Şafak por-
trayed Turkey’s image on positive terms. They
framed the image of Turkey through character-
istics such as Friend of Muslim countries, me-
diator in the Middle East peace process, a
country with its own will, key player in the
region working for the peace/human right and
global actor. In Table 6 we can see that these
two newspapers framed their news coverage of
Davos incident with a positive tone. On the
contrary, Cumhuriyet identify Turkey’s image
through characteristics such as lost its role and
objectivity as a mediator in the Middle East,
moving away from the West. It is clear that the
findings in Table 6 where Cumhuriyet is shown
to have a negative news coverage tone support
the  findings  of  the  Table  7. Hürriyet does not
manifest a clear framing of Turkey’s image. No
specific characteristic stands out to describe
Turkey’s image which overlaps with its neutral
of negative news coverage tone in Table 6.

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Selçuk İletişim, 6, 3, 2010
74
Table 7. Clusters about Turkey
Newspaper Name
Hürriyet
Cumhuriyet
Z
aman
Yeni Şafak
Count
0
0
3
6
Friend of Muslim countries
% within Clusters
0%
0%
33,3%
66,7%
Count
1
0
15
13
Mediator in the Middle
East peace process
% within Clusters
3,4%
0%
51,7%
44,8%
Count
2
14
7
2
Lost its role and objectivity
as a mediator in the Middle
East
% within Clusters
8%
56%
28%
8%
Count
1
5
2
0
Moving away from the
West
% within Clusters
12,5%
62,5%
25%
0%
Count
5
0
9
13
A  country  with  its  own
political will
% within Clusters
18,5%
0%
33,3%
48,1%
Count
1
0
18
16
Key player in the region
working for the peace/
human rights
% within Clusters
2,9%
0%
51,4%
45,7%
Count
0
0
3
2
A global actor
% within Clusters
0%
0%
60%
40%
Total
Count
10
19
62
52
To identify the image of Turkish Prime Minis-
ter Recep Tayyip Erdoğan framed by Hürriyet,
Cumhuriyet, Zaman and Yeni Şafak we classi-
fied selected news articles into 10 clusters:
Hero/brave/sincere, not diplomatic, fake hero, a
world leader, spokesperson of Hamas, peace-
maker, protector of Turkey's reputation, popu-
list (acted for  the sake of  upcoming elections),
acted in humanitarian terms not political terms,
anti-semitist. As shown in Table 8, Zaman and
Yeni Şafak portrayed Prime Minister Erdoğan’s
image on positive terms. They framed the im-
age of Erdoğan through characteristics such as
hero/brave/sincere, a world leader, peacemaker,
protector of Turkey's reputation, acted in hu-
manitarian terms not political terms, anti-
semitist.
Table 8. Clusters about Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (RTE)
Newspaper Name
Hürriyet
Cumhuriyet
Zaman
Yeni Şafak
Count
2
1
19
23
Hero/Brave/Sincere
% within RTE
4,4%
2,2%
42,2%
51,1%
Count
10
20
14
6
Not diplomatic
% within RTE
20%
40%
28%
12%
Count
5
1
1
0
Fake Hero
% within RTE
71,4%
14,3%
14,3%
0%
Count
2
0
5
5
A world leader
% within RTE
16,7%
0%
41,7%
41,7%
Count
8
11
6
1
Spokesperson of Hamas
% within RTE
30,8%
42,3%
23,1%
3,8%
Count
1
0
4
4
Peacemaker
% within RTE
11,1%
0%
44,4%
44,4%
Count
0
1
9
12
Protector of Turkey's reputa-
tion
% within RTE
0%
4,5%
40,9%
54,5%
Count
8
21
7
1
Populist (Acted for the sake of
upcoming elections)
% within RTE
21,6%
56,8%
18,9%
2,7%
Count
1
0
17
15
Acted in humanitarian terms
not political terms
% within RTE
3%
0%
51,5%
45,5%
Count
0
0
6
1
Anti-semitist
% within RTE
0%
0%
85,7%
14,3%
Total
Count
37
55
88
72

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