Abstract:

The Press has been one of the most effective means of mass communication since its existence. Because of this reason, not only in the election periods, but also during nonelection periods, newspapers have an important function in terms of political communication. Throughout the history of the press, its relationships with politics and power were always on the agenda as well. The conflicts between the press and politics have affected the language of the news; the elements like objectivity and balance in the news have clearly begun to be ignored. The role of the press to reflect the electoral campaigns of political parties may vary due to newspapers’ policy, ideology and their relationship with the parties. Therefore, in this study, how the political communication process of the leaders and parties were presented and reflected during the 2011 general election process in Turkey is analyzed. Between May 1 and June 12, the election process of political parties in the news of the daily national newspapers, Cumhuriyet, Hurriyet and Zaman is analyzed by using the model of critical discourse analysis

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