The Palgrave Macmillan Series in International Political Communication

As we find ourselves in the fourth wave of digital communication, and in the wake of a pandemic which has shaken the foundations of political communication, an evaluation of these topics is essential to the reinvention of democracy. The book is geared towards students and researchers who wish to delve into the latest trends in digital communication, political communication actors and journalists. It further aims to prepare citizens to effectively deal with messaging that blurs the line between truth and falsehood with increasingly powerful strategies supported by artificial intelligence.

This book introduces the concept of narrative tradition to study representation in international politics. Focusing specifically on the case of Turkey, the book shows how narrative traditions are constructed, maintained, and passed on by a loose epistemic community that involves practitioners and experts including scholars, journalists, diplomats, and political representatives. Employing an interpretative approach, the book distinguishes between four narrative traditions in the study of Turkey: Turkey as a state that is (1) getting lost, (2) standing at a decisive crossroad, (3) led by strongmen, and (4) struggling with a creeping Islamisation.These narrative traditions carry enduring beliefs that not only describe, moralise, judge, and stigmatise Turkey, but also contribute to the idea of the West. The book focuses on knowledge that is produced from a Western perspective, showing that Turkey provides a channel through which the Western self can be debated, challenged, celebrated, and judged.

Adopting a systemic perspective, this book explores media-based communication and reason-giving as a linkage process that transcends time and space. Arguments, reasoning perspectives and emotional concerns link elites’ and citizens’ political judgement within and across a set of interrelated arenas in the political system.