Abstract:

The media is among the greatest powers of today in influencing individuals and establishing perceptions on the masses. From this aspect, it has the power to create public opinion about any issue in the national and international arena in important issues, to inform societies, and to attract the attention of the whole world to that issue. In recent years, the civil war in Syria has also been among the main items of the agenda of the media, and a lot of news has been made in both the national and international press about refugees who escaped from this war and took refuge in other countries. Considering the influence of the media on the perception of individuals, it is thought that especially the news about refugees will have an effect on the relationship between the society and these refugees. The aim of the study prepared based on this is to determine the effects of the news about Syrian asylum seekers in written, visual, and auditory media on the preservice teachers’ perceptions of Syrian asylum seekers. The study was conducted with the “case study” among qualitative research designs. The study group consists of 60 preservice teachers continuing their education in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades of the Program of Social Studies Teaching of Adıyaman University, Faculty of Education in the 2015-2016 academic year. The standardized open-ended interview form was used as the data collection tool. A total of 11 questions, 6 structured and 5 unstructured open-ended questions, which are thought to ensure reaching current and accurate data, are included in the interview form in accordance with the literature reviewed. The data collected within the scope of the study were analyzed by the content analysis. According to the findings obtained, it was concluded that all preservice teachers included in the study reported that they followed the news programs on a regular basis and that the news contents about Syrian refugees in the media were mostly negative. Furthermore, it was also found out that the perceptions of preservice teachers of the Syrians were generally adversely affected by these news contents. Besides, it was determined that the perceptions of preservice teachers of the Syrians were in parallel with the news contents (positive, negative, and objective). Finally, it was concluded that in accordance with the news about the Syrians in the media, preservice teachers described Syrian asylum seekers as “helpless, needy, and lonely”.

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