HAKİKATİN ÖNEMSİZLEŞMESİ ÇAĞINDA GÖÇMEN KARŞITI SÖYLEM ÜZERİNE BİR DEĞERLENDİRME

Year 2020, Special Issue: Migration, 1 - 12, 30.12.2020

Gül Ceylan Tok

Abstract

"Post-truth", 2016 yılında Oxford Dictionary tarafından "Yılın Kelimesi" seçildi. “Nesnel hakikatlerin belirli bir konu üzerinde kamuoyunu belirlemede duygulardan ve kişisel kanaatlerden daha az etkili olması durumu” olarak tanımlamıştır. Kavram 1992'den beri kullanılsa da, 2016’da Birleşik Krallık’ın Avrupa Birliği’nden Ayrılma Referandumu, diğer adıyla Brexit süreci ve aynı yıl Donald Trump’ın ABD başkanı seçilme süreci sırasında geniş bir kullanıma girmiştir. Bu makalede post-truth dönemi ve göçmen karşıtı söylemler arasındaki ilişki, Brexit ve Trump'ın başkanlık süreçlerine bakılarak incelenecektir. Göçmen karşıtı söylem, “AB'den Ayrıl” kampanyasında ve Trump'ın 2016'daki seçim kampanyasındaki siyasi propagandanın önemli bir parçasıydı. AB'den Ayrıl kampanyası ve Trump seçmen kitlelerinin korku ve önyargılarına dayanarak oluşturdukları göçmen karşıtı söylemler küresel ekonomik sistemin mağdur ettiği seçmen kitlelerini mobilize etmekte kullanılmıştır. Hakikatin önemsizleşmesi sürecinde teknoloji şirketleri, sosyal ağlar ve stratejik iletişim ajansları gibi aktörler önemli rol oynamaktadır. Toplum tarihin her döneminde yalan haberlerle yönlendirilmeye çalışılmıştır. Yeni medya düzenindeki yenilik bu aktörlerin de katkısıyla yalanın inanılmaz bir hızla yayılmasıdır. Makalede başkanlığı sırasındaki Donald Trump’ın göçmen karşıtı politikaları incelenmiş ve göçmen karşıtı söylem açısından 2016 ve 2020 seçim kampanyaları karşılaştırılmıştır. 2020 seçimleri öncesinde göç meselesinin seçmenlerin nezdinde azalan önemi sebebiyle, Trump’ın tehdit inşasını göçmenlerden Afrikalı Amerikalılara çevirdiği iddia edilecektir.

Keywords

Göç, Post-truth, Popülizm

A REFLECTION ON ANTI-MIGRANT DISCOURSE IN THE AGE OF POST-TRUTH

Abstract

“Post-truth” was chosen as the “Word of the Year” by the Oxford Dictionary in 2016. It was defined as an adjective “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Although the term has been in use since 1992, it was the British referendum regarding the nation’s withdrawal from the European Union and the US presidential election in 2016 that brought the term into wider usage. In this paper, the relation between the age of post-truth and anti-migrant discourses will be explored by looking into the case of Brexit and Trump’s presidency. Anti-migration discourse was a significant part of the political propaganda in the “Vote Leave” campaign and Donald Trump’s election campaign in 2016. Technology companies, social networks, and strategic communication agencies have become significant actors in the post-truth age. The peculiarity of the new media order in the post-truth age is the spread of lies at an incredible speed. It will be argued that Leave EU campaigners and Trump mobilized their voters by making post truth claims about migrants based on fears and prejudices of their targeted pool of voters. In this article Trump’s anti-migrant policies during his presidency will be examined and his presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020 will be compared in terms of their approach to migration issue. The cases of Brexit and Trump’s presidency demonstrated that anti-migrant discourse based on lies have been spreading at unprecedented pace in the age of post-truth with the help of digital actors. It will be argued that since the issue of migration lost its urgency for the majority of voters before 2020 elections, Trump changed his threat construction from migrants to African Americans.

Keywords

Migration, Post-truth, Populism

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