Bilge Yesil on Turkey’s global media operations
Bilge Yesil, associate professor of media culture at CUNY, on “Talking Back to the West: How Turkey Uses Counter-Hegemony to Reshape the Global Communication Order” (University of Illinois Press)
At the launch of TRT World in 2016, Erdoğan criticised what he called “the obstruction of truth by Western media,” arguing that Western journalists ignored his government’s achievements and presented a skewed version of news coming from Turkey. He also condemned Western media for turning a blind eye to the plight of “the downtrodden and the oppressed,” a reference he often uses to refer to Muslims and Global South publics. Erdoğan ended his address by quoting his “favourite African proverb”: “Unless the lions write their own stories, we will continue to listen to the hunters’ stories.” This sentiment may resonate more these days, given developments in Gaza and widespread criticism of the West over that issue. We see that criticism particularly widespread among Muslim-majority countries, including Turkey. So do you think the timing of your book is particularly good?
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