Conscientious objection in Turkey: A study of social representations

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Edebiyat Fakültesi, Psikoloji Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2013

Öğrenci: GÜLDEN SAYILAN

Danışman: BENGİ ÖNER ÖZKAN

Özet:

This study has been conducted with the purpose of revealing the prevailing social representations related to conscientious objection and conscientious objectors in Turkey. In order to fulfill this aim, a media study and an interview study have been conducted. In the media study, the reports and opinion columns of five national newspapers representing various political ideologies were qualitatively analyzed over a period of three months. Results have shown that there exist prevailing representations of conscientious objection and objectors in the newspapers and that these representations are related to representations of military service, war, the homeland, and religion. Moreover, it can be seen that there are some differences in the way and the extent by which newspapers handle the issue in accordance with their political stances. For the second study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 51 adults and the contents of these interviews were qualitatively analyzed. In this study there is a parallel drawn between the social representations of conscientious objection gained through interviews and the corresponding media representations of the issue. Furthermore, the social representations of conscientious objection as acquired through the interviews as well as those discovered via a content analysis of the media, were found to both relate to the ideologies of militarism, nationalism, patriotism, and masculinity.