The Gulf Information War| News Coverage of the Gulf Crisis in the Turkish Mediascape: Agendas, Frames, and Manufacturing Consent

Abstract

Using a data set of 2,968 articles collected from 22 different newspapers in Turkey, this article maps media responses to the ongoing Gulf Crisis. In doing so, we deploy a pioneering methodology derived from natural language processing and correspondence analysis to test whether categorical variables such as political affiliation, ownership, and ideological outlook had any impact on how a news publication covered the Gulf Crisis. In the results and interpretation sections, we attempt to connect our findings to broader discussions on agenda setting, framing, and building consent. Based on our analysis, we propose the following conclusions: (a) Political affiliation, ownership structure, and the ideological outlook all had unique effects on how a publication covered the Gulf Crisis, (b) the progovernment press embarked on a campaign to sway public opinion about the government’s decision to side with Qatar. The dimensions of this campaign strongly resembled an executive act of consent manufacturing, and (c) corporate-owned news organizations were the driving force shaping both the public agenda and the dominant framing of the Gulf Crisis in the Turkish mediascape.