An Assessment of Mainstream Newspapers in Turkey in the Context of Deliberative Democracy: An Analysis of the April 16, 2017 Constitutional Referendum
Project no. 1206 · Status: Kapanmış (Yayın bekleniyor) · 2018
Summary
This report is the final output of the research project as entitled “An Assessment of Mainstream Newspapers in Turkey in the Context of Deliberative Democracy: An Analysis of the April 16, 2017 Constitutional Referendum”. The purpose of the research project is that to analyze news content during the referendum campaign and to identify the opportunities and limitations of news media in terms of deliberative democracy. The research questions are: a) Which political actors and which discourses are dominant in news coverage during the referendum campaign? b) Did the newspapers allow for deliberation with referendum news? c) Is there a significant difference between the performances of the newspapers in terms of deliberative democracy according to the positions in the political spectrum? The research is planned to be carried out with the content analysis method. Yet, in this report, the findings regarding the literature dimension of the research are discussed in detail. In this context, the typological character of referendums, different approaches regarding referendums within democratic theory and the importance of deliberative democracy and media relation in terms of the democratic capacity of referendums are discussed. Keywords: Referendum, Referendum Campaigns, Deliberative Democracy, News Media