Continuity and Change in the State-sponsored Information Warfare: Disinformation, Propaganda and Fake News

Year 2025, Volume: 2 Issue: 3, 20 - 41, 29.05.2025

Yeşim Kaptan

Abstract

The strict regulations and state control over media, along with the utilization of media content for government propaganda, are not new phenomena, rather they appear as a recurring feature in Turkish politics. In the initial part of the article, by taking a historical perspective, I investigate the intricate relationship between the media industry and political actors to map out the government’s attempts to control and deploy media throughout the history of modern Türkiye. In the second part, I describe the historical continuum in the utilization of propaganda strategies under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. Drawing on Althusser’s notion of the Ideological State Apparatuses (ISA) and relying on the collective case study method, I delve into the emergent information warfare strategies of the government and pro-government media for the deployment of political disinformation as a form of state-sponsored communication policy to manipulate the national public. During Erdogan's presidency, both the government’s and pro-government media’s information warfare and propaganda strategies have significantly transformed as the AKP sought to exert greater control over independent media and dissenting voices. I conclude that in addition to correspondences with previously dominant strategies of the propaganda for the strict control of the traditional media, under the AKP regime, leveraging and disseminating disinformation and manipulating content in media through fake news have become a prevalent and unofficially sanctioned strategic tool as well as a large-scale and centered institutionalized political activity in the information warfare.

Keywords

Information warfare, disinformation, fake news, propaganda strategies, the Turkish media and the government

Devlet Destekli Enformasyon Savaşında Süreklilik ve Değişim: Dezenformasyon, Propaganda ve Yalan Haberler

Abstract

Türkiye’de devletin medyayı kontrol altına almaya çalışması, medya kuruluşları üzerindeki baskı ve medya içeriklerinin hükümet propagandası için kullanılması yeni bir olgu değildir. Aksine Türk siyasetinde tekrarlanan bir özellik olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Bu makalenin amacı, Türkiye'yede hükümetlerin medyayı kontrol etme yöntemlerini ve taraflı olarak kullanma girişimlerini analiz ederek medya endüstrisi ile siyasi aktörler arasındaki karmaşık ilişkiyi incelemektir. Makalenin ilk bölümü, tarihsel bir bakış açısıyla, degişen medya ve farklı siyasi iktidarlar arasındaki ilişkilere odaklanmaktadır. İkinci bölüm ise, AKP hükümetinin propaganda stratejilerinin tarihsel sürekliliğine bakmaktadır. Althusser'in İdeolojik Devlet Aygıtları (İDA) kavramından yola çıkarak ve kolektif vaka çalışması yöntemine dayanarak, ulusal kamuoyunu manipüle etmek için devlet destekli iletişim politikasının bir strateji biçimi olarak siyasi dezenformasyonun yayılmasında ve medyanın bilgi savaşlarında kullanılmasına odaklanmaktadır.Erdoğan'ın cumhurbaşkanlığı döneminde, hem hükümetin hem de hükümet yanlısı medyanın bilgi savaşları ve propaganda stratejileri, AKP'nin bağımsız medya ve muhalif sesler üzerinde daha fazla kontrol sağlamaya çalışmasıyla önemli ölçüde dönüşmüştür. AKP döneminde görülen geleneksel medyanın sıkı kontrolüne yönelik baskılar ve propaganda yöntemleri daha önceki hükümetlerin politikaları ile örtüşmektedir. Ancak AKP rejimi dezenformasyondan yararlanma, yanlış bilgi yayma ve yalan haber yoluyla medyadaki içeriği manipüle etmenin yaygın ve kabul edilen geçerli bir yöntem haline geldiği bir dönem olmuştur. Aynı zamanda bilgi savaşları geniş ölçekli, merkezi ve kurumsallaşmış bir politik faaliyete dönüşmüştür.

Keywords

Enformasyon savaşı, dezenformasyon, yalan haber, propaganda stratejileri, Türk medyası ve hükümet

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