Abstract:

The aim of the present research is to investigate the phenomenon of new racism expressed through the discourse surrounding "Syrians" in the digital public sphere (DPS) within the context of the new media ecology. This study is premised on the proposition that anti-immigrant discourse in digital spaces is particularly prevalent, as indicated by the new racism paradigm. The core question addressed in this study is the context in which the discourse of "Syrians" is employed in the DPS. The data was collected through purposive sampling, encompassing 7750 tweets, hashtags, and comments on Twitter, 294 video contents and comments on YouTube, 285 Facebook posts, and 38,600 comments/contents on Instagram. The discourse-centered online ethnography was conducted across Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok platforms between December 15, 2020, and February 10, 2021. The findings of the research reveal that the anti-immigrant discourse towards Syrians, which embodies a new form of racism embedded in Turkish nationalism, was expressed with great intensity in the DPS. The exclusionary comments and discussions have shed light on the intersection of informal Islamic nationalism and Syrian immigrants and on how Turkish nationalist discourse excludes and stigmatizes them.

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