(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
because they have a continuous structure and carry a power and potential of systematic
influence (Bar-Tal and Teichman, 2005: 8).
When we take into account the undeniable power of media as a dominant reference within
modern information societies (van Dijk, 2000: 36), it can also be said that the importance of
media’s role has increased in the processes of communicating and perpetuating stereotypes.
2. Representations of Environmentalists in Media
As for how environmental problems and environmentalist actions take place in media;
humans’ ability to perceive environmental problems, which are currently not threatening to
them, events around these problems, existence and depth of threats is dependent on detailed
and continuous information gathering. To a great extent, this occurs through media (Koçak,
2006: 10). In this point, it is important how media reflects environmental problems and the
reactions made by environmentalist groups against these problems.
By some studies made on the subject, it is seen that environmentalists are represented by
stereotyping. In their study on how environmentalist actions in Canada are presented in
printed media, Arvai and Mascarehas (2001) revealed that newspapers framed
environmentalist actions and activists negatively. A journalist’s attitude towards environment
and ideological position of a newspaper play an important part in the media representation of
environmentalists. If attitude of the newspaper is positive and supportive, environmentalists
are presented as heroes. This is exemplified by Uppal’s (2003) study which showed that
newspapers in the USA exhibited a supportive attitude towards environmentalist activists
during debates on a hydroelectric plant.
Hutchins and Lester (2006) indicate that even when environmentalists are represented with
affirmation, their political influence is diminished in news reports with such emphases as
“poems were read, dances were made.” Sometimes this is done directly by negative
representations. Such that, environmentalists’ indications towards environmental problems are
diminished by playing on sentences in the news structure and a perception could be created to
imply what environmentalists are doing is unessential. Environmentalists’ clashes with police
and custodies also become news stories, but in these stories, environmentalists are presented
in a negative light.
In a study on how environmentalists are represented by media on Greenpeace actions, Hansen
(2003) examined the Brent Spar action by Greenpeace as an example. In this study, it was
found that media had described activists as “terrorist, troublemaker and antidemocratic.”
Hansen mentioned in his work that Greenpeace was presented in a newspaper as “illegal and
heterodox” and “undemocratic and unscientific.”
There is no study on how environmentalists are presented in Turkish media. There are,
however, enough views to form some data on how environmentalists are perceived. Gökdayı
(1997: 22) states that various meanings have been ascribed to environmentalism since 1970s
and that one of these is “a nonconformist current dating from the time of hippies.” While
suggesting that environmentalism is regarded as a hobby in Turkey, Türkmen (2006) says it
has been rapidly progressing towards a better position in recent years, taking up more space in
the country agenda and strengthening its legitimacy and social status.
A good specimen to embody the subject matter is some newspaper writings which are
published in internet media and which take environmentalists, too, as a subject in connection
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