Watchdog Journalism during the Coronavirus Crisis in Turkey

Abstract

This study aims to question the watchdog function of the Turkish press in the context of the coronavirus crisis, to deal with the initial coronavirus responses of the news media, and to examine the extent to which the press fulfills its public responsibility and watchdog function. Accordingly, it discussed the role of the media in protecting the public interest in terms of watchdog journalism and centered on the matter of how the news media debate social welfare measures taken for the fragile social groups during the coronaviruses crisis. The study claims that pro-government media present a health-based perspective, but anti-government media much more point out the socio-economic dimensions of COVID-19. The online newspapers that are selected according to the range of different political stances, in particular, anti-government and pro-government, have been investigated through content analysis in terms of content diversity and watchdog journalism. Thus, it has been determined whether watchdog journalism is fulfilled in such a polarized political environment in the context of news on COVID-19 and concluded that the news media ignore social policy measures, are polarized along political lines, and are not critical enough of the government.

“Flattening the curve”: Communication, risk and COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey

“…The only national pro-opposition TV channel, Fox TV, attributed the failure to contain the virus to the policies of the government. According to Sen (2021), online news sites Birgun, Cumhuriyet, Hurriyet, Haberturk and Sabah did not try to dig into the root causes of the COVID-19-related issues in Turkey beyond a couple of review articles. On the contrary, Turkish leftist media outlets criticized AKP government as incapable due to the mismanagement of COVID-19-related health policies.…”