Aircraft Crisis Discussed in the Media of Azerbaijan in the Context of the Media’s Function of Molding Public Opinion

Georgian-Turkish InternationalScientific Conference, Gori, Gürcistan, 15 - 16 Aralık 2017, ss.29, (Özet Bildiri)

In today's globalizing world, news publishing has achieved an unprecedented speed and popularity

thanks to the possibilities provided by the internet. An event happening anywhere in the world is instantly

announced to the world and the whole world becomes aware of the situation regardless of distances.

However, events are often presented to the public as not absolute facts but in a modified form. In this

context, the news that a Russian war plane was dropped by Turkish F-16s at the Turkish-Syrian border on

November 24, 2015 was suitable to be modified with the effect of the debate about border violation. The fact

that a Russian plane was dropped by a NATO member for the first time in history was regarded as an

important event not only in the party countries but in the world and received widespread media attention.

Unlike the rest of the world, the media of Azerbaijani gave great importance to this issue as it has historical

and cultural ties with Russia and Turkey, the sides of the event. In the preparation process of this study, the

publications of three media organizations, which are thought to reflect the perspective of Azerbaijani media

on the issue, were examined. In addition to the style used in communicating the news, the commentaries

posted on the pages were very important in terms of our study. The evaluation of these news and comments

constitutes the main subject of the study. In this study, first, the media’s function of molding public opinion

was discussed and then how the plane crisis was addressed in the Azerbaijani media was examined in this

context.