ABSTRACT MEDIA, POLITICS AND SLANTED NEWS COVERAGE DURING THE ELECTION PERIODS &ndash / CASE STUDY OF NEWS ON AKP &Ccedil / AgLAYAN, Eda M.S. in Media and Cultural Studies Supervisor : Prof. Dr. RaSit KAYA May, 2010, 107 pages This thesis aims to study the attitude of media towards AKP (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi - Justice and Development Party) during the 2002 and 2007 general legislative elections in Turkey. Three national newspapers were selected in the scope of analysis: H&uuml / rriyet, Sabah an Yeni Safak in two months period before 2002 General Elections and 2007 General Elections (September, 1- October, 31 2002, June, 1 &ndash / July, 21 2007). Media are assumed to have a defining role on the formation of opinions due to the fact that the events of the external world to our immediate experiences is continuously interpreted and disseminated through them. Under these considerations, it is frequently claimed that world of politics is one of the most effected institutions. So, during the election periods campaigns are designed and carried out to direct opinions by means of media. Main question of the thesis is whether national daily newspapers were favorable to AKP, both before 2002 general elections when it was elected as first political party and before 2007 general elections when it was the ruling party. AKP news coverage of the selected newspapers in the defined periods were examined through qualitative content analysis. Selected newspapers&rsquo / news slant are revealed by way of reading AKP news critically to determine their dominant tone, gauging how much space they occupied in the newspapers and considering attitudes of the newspapers towards other political parties. Keywords: Media, Liberal Media Theory, News Slant, Qualitative Content Analysis

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