Abstract:

This article aims to draw attention to the fact that the culture of fear as a result of the discourse of fear reproduced by the media in Turkey has become a political instrument of repression. This discourse is established on the base of terrorism, especially by putting quite different organizations in the same basket, as if they are identical. In the paper, it is tried to reveal the building of the said discourse in the published news stories about the detention operation at the daily Cumhuriyet on October, 31, 2016 by using critical discourse analysis. For this, the news about the event on the first pages of the turkish dailies Sabah, Takvim, Star, Yeni Şafak, Türkiye, Yeni Akit, Akşam, Güneş, Milliyet, Vatan, Habertürk, Yeni Asya, Yeni Birlik and Hürriyet published on November,1, 2016, have been analysed according to the discourse-historical approach conceptualised essentially by Ruth Wodak. As a result, it is found that the discourse of fear is established on the identification of Cumhuriyet with organizations such as FETÖ, PKK and PYD.

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