This paper analyses the short-and long-term relationships between the transportationcommunication capital and the output for Turkey. The study applies a Cobb-Douglas production function under the assumption of constant returns to scale and employs co-integration analysis by estimating a vector error correction model (VECM). As a result of the VECM estimation, one co-integrating relationship is detected. The results based on the impulse response function analysis imply that per labour transportation-communication capital appears both to have been a crucial input in the Turkish productive process and to have had a positive crowding in effect on the per labour non-residential total capital formation. Moreover, the results support the argument that the transportation-communication capital has a lagged impact on economic growth. The long-term accumulated elasticity of output to transportation-communication capital has been found to be 0.59. The long-term accumulated marginal product was also calculated. It implies that a 1 Turkish Lira increase in per labour transportation-communication capital results in a long-term rise of 1.45 Turkish Liras in per labour output. All these findings suggest that transportation-communication capital may be a powerful tool for policy-makers to promote long-term per labour real output growth in Turkey.

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The functioning of the media as a public watchdog and as a neutral forum for society’s different perspectives is a model that is seen as vital in modern democracies. However, in societies with major social rifts these functions may conflict with one another and alter the media’s role. This work contributes to the theoretical discussion of the role of the media, through a study of the media in religious–secular conflict in Turkey and Israel. In recent years, religious parties’ electoral gains have challenged secular communities’ hold on the countries’ decision-making institutions. With the increase in religious–secular political tensions, the media on both sides have taken a central role, highlighting perceived dangers presented by the other side. As the media come to function as the vanguard of the opposing sides, the impact is twofold: loss of an important public watchdog and a deepening of societal rifts.

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