Representations of The Poor and Poverty on Television News in Turkey

Abstract

This paper focuses on how the poor and poverty are represented in main news bulletins of Turkish TV channels. It aims to examine the forms of representation of poverty in TV news, highlighting their articulations with the dominant discourses and uncovering what functions these representations serve. The sample of the study comprises the main news bulletins in four channels (January 1 to March 31 2014): Kanal D, which represents the "neo-liberal" ideology and is owned by a large conglomerate; Kanal 7, with a "neo-conservative" ideology largely shaped by religious discourses; Hayat TV, with a leftist" ideology; and the state-owned channel TRT 1. This variety of ideological positions allows the researcher to analyze what impact the ideological tendencies have on the representations of the poor and poverty. The analysis is based on the critical discourse analysis developed by Teun van Dijk. The findings of the study indicate that these TV channels have more commonalities in terms of their negative, exclusionary approach to poverty than the differences in their representations stemming from their ideological positioning. It is argued that the negative representations of the poor and poverty hinder an effective policy development regarding the problem.