Turkey in Italian Media: Between Islam and Europe

Year 2011, Volume: 16 Issue: 1, 21 - 45, 01.04.2011

Margherita Marcellını Özgehan Şenyuva

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the representation of Turkey in Italian newspapers. The questions that are investigated are: a if the representation of Turkey in Italian newspapers is stereotyped and ill-informed; b if there is a convergence among the political elites and the media on Turkey; and c whether Islam is being inserted into the construction of the perception about Turkey by the Italian media. This study argues that religion plays an important role in the Italian newspapers’ construction of the Turkish image. Several studies about the effects of mass media on public opinion argue that a linear relationship exists between the quantity of media reports and the opinions of the population. Thus it is argued that Italian public opinion on Turkey is highly related to the media coverage and, most importantly, on how it is addressed. Plus, it is also argued that there are similarities between the media’s agenda and the political agenda, with certain media outlets reflecting and repeating the positions of related political parties. This study concludes that the representation of Turkey in Italian newspapers is limited in its informative content and Islam is a major component of its representation.

Keywords

Turkey, Italian media, public opinion, European Union, Islam.

References

• Giacomo Devoto and Gian Carlo Oli, Il Devoto-Oli, Vocabolario della linguga italiana, Rome, Le Monnier Ed., 2010. For further information about the image of the Turks in Italy during history, see, Mustafa Soykut, Image of the “Turk” in Italy: A History of the “Other” in Early Modern Europe: 1453-1683, Berlin, Klaus-Schwarz Verlag, 2010; Mustafa Soykut (ed.), Historical Image of the Turk In Europe: Political and Civilisational Aspects, Istanbul, The Isis Press, 2003.
• Robert Mantran, Storia dell’Impero Ottomano, Lecce, Argo Editrice, 2004.
• See the contributions by Aliboni, Alessandri and Üstün in this volume.
• Emiliano Alessandri and Sebastiano Sali, “Italian Perceptions”, in Sait Akşit, Özgehan Şenyuva, Çigdem Üstün (eds.), Turkey Watch EU Member States’ Perceptions on Turkey’s Accession to the EU, Ankara, Zeplin, 2010.
• Lega Nord, “Allargamento dell’Unione Europea”, at http://www.leganord.org/elezioni/2008/lega/ue/ allargamento_ue.pdf [last visited 25 March 2011].
• Alessandri and Sali, “Italian Perceptions”, p. 58.
• “Napolitano: la democrazia parlamentare resta valida”, Corriere della Sera, 18 November 2009.
• Emiliano Alessandri, “A Question of Interest and Vision: Southern European Perspectives on Turkey’s Relations with the European Union”, Foreign Policy at Brookings, Policy Paper No. 21 (June 2010), p. 9.
• Alessandri, and Sali, “Italian Perceptions”, p. 61.
• Emiliano Alessandri and Ebru Canan, “Mamma li Turchi : Just an Old Italian Saying”, in Nathalie Tocci (ed.), Talking Turkey in Europe: Towards a Differentiated Communication Strategy, Quaderni Istituto Affari Internazionali, English Series No. 13 (December 2008), pp. 11-41.
• Alessandri and Sali, “Italian Perceptions”, p. 66.
• Michelangelo Guida, “Italy’s various faces towards Turkey”, Insight Turkey, Vol. 6, No. 4 (December/ October 2004), p. 22
• Alessandri and Sali, “Italian Perceptions”, p. 63
• La Padania, 31 August 2010.
• Alessandri and Canan, “Mamma li Turchi : Just an Old Italian Saying”, p. 17.
• Ilaria Favaretto, “Italy, EU-Enlargement and the ‘Reinvention’ of Europe: Between Historical Memories and Present Representations”, in Klaus Eder and Willfried Spohn (eds.), Collective Memory and European Identity, London, Ashgate Publishing Group, 2005, p. 92.
• TTS 2004, 2006, 2007, IES 2004, EES 2006, 2007, quoted in Alessandri and Canan, “Mamma li Turchi : Just an Old Italian Saying”, p. 30.
• TTS 2004, IES 2004, quoted in Canan, Islamofobia and Mamma gli Turchi, p. 11.
• Canan, Islamofobia and Mamma gli Turchi ; Alessandri and Canan, “Mamma li Turchi : Just an Old Italian Saying”.
• Catherine Macmillan, “Privileged Partnership, Open Ended Accession Negotiations and the Securitization of Turkey’s EU Accession Process”, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Vol. 18, No. 4 (December 2010), p. 456-458.
• Andrea Pitasi, et al, “Italian Multiple Identities: The Italian Perception of National and European Belonging”, in Richard Robyn (ed.), The Changing Face of European Identity, London and New York, Routledge, 2005, p. 145.
• Pitasi, et al, “Italian Multiple Identities: the Italian Perception of National and European Belonging”.
• Lauren McLaren, “Public Support for the European Union: Cost/Benefit Analysis or Perceived Cultural Threat?”, Journal of Politics, Vol. 64, No. 2 (May 2002), pp. 551-566.
• Pitasi, et al, “Italian Multiple Identities: The Italian Perception of National and European Belonging”, p. 152.
• Sara Silvestri, “Does Islam Challenge European Identity?”, in Lucia Faltin and Melanie J. Wright (eds.), The Religious Roots of Contemporary European Identity, New York & London, T&T Clark, Continuum, 2007, p. 15-17.
• Canan, Islamofobia and Mamma gli Turchi , p. 3.
• Silvestri, “Does Islam Challenge European Identity?”, p. 15.
• Alessandri and Canan, “Mamma li Turchi : Just an Old Italian Saying”, p. 27.
• Macmillan, “Privileged Partnership, Open Ended Accession Negotiations and the Securitization of Turkey’s EU Accession Process”, p. 454.
• Alessandri and Sebastiano, “Italian Perceptions”, p. 58.
• Marco Bruno, L’Islam immaginato: Rappresentazioni e stereotipi nei media italiani, Milano, Ed. Guerrini Scientifica, 2008.
• John R. Zaller, The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
• Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion, New York, Macmillan, 1922 (reprint 1997).
• Giacomo Devoto and Gian Carlo Oli, Il Devoto-Oli, Vocabolario della linguga italiana.
• Maxwell McCombs, Setting the Agenda: The Mass Media and Public Opinion, Cambridge, Polity Press, 2004.
• Patrick Roessler, “Agenda-Setting, Framing and Priming”, in Wolfgang Donsbach and Michael W. Traugott (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Public Opinion Research, London, Sage Publication, 2008, p. 212.
• Zaller, The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion, p. 7.
• Jaffer Sheyholislami, “Critical Discourse Analysis”, at http://www.carleton.ca/~jsheyhol/cda.htm [last visited 21 April 2011].
• Teun A. Van Dijk, “Critical Discourse Analysis”, in Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen and Heidi Hamilton (eds.), Handbook of Discourse Analysis, Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, 2004.
• Audipress Srl is a company that has as its aim the objective and impartial creation of collective quantitative and qualitative investigations about the characteristics of reading and readers of newspapers and magazines, at http://www.audipress.it/.
• Mario Grandinetti, “La proprietà quotidiani e delle Televisioni Nazionali”, in Valeiro Castronovo and Nicola Tranfaglia (eds.), La stampa italiana nell’età della TV. Dagli anni settanta ad oggi, Bari and Rome, Editori Laterza, 2008.
• Grandinetti, “La proprietà quotidiani e delle Televisioni Nazionali”. 44 Ibid.
• Antonio Gramsci was a founding member of the Italian Communist Party and also a major Italian writer, politician, political philosopher, and linguist. He was imprisoned by Benito Mussolini’s regime and his major work was the Prison Notebooks. For further information on Atonio Gramsci, see: http:// www.marxists.org/archive/gramsci.
• Grandinetti, “La proprietà quotidiani e delle Televisioni Nazionali”. 47 Ibid.
• Mediaset Rai and SKY; Auditel Data from “Ultim’ora”, supplement of Il Manifesto, 28 April 2010.