Talking Back to the West

Bilge Yesil is an associate professor of media culture at City University of New York, College of Staten Island. She is the author of Media in New Turkey: The Origins of an Authoritarian Neoliberal State.

“Yesil masterfully shows how Erdogan and the AKP have positioned themselves as a voice of aggrieved Muslims and counterbalance to the harm that Western capitalism, globalization, and interventions have caused. With impressive historical and media analysis and even some ethnography and interviews, she then deconstructs their global media output to reveal how their reductionist and polarizing binary East/West and Us/Them messaging not only undermines Turkey’s own complex in-betweenness but also further empowers hardliners.”--Wazhmah Osman, author of Television and the Afghan Culture Wars: Brought to You by Foreigners, Warlords, and Activists

• Acknowledgments Introduction Battling against Western Media Imperialism: Domestic Crises and International Communication Initiatives Legitimizing Turkey’s Communication Model: Encounters with Foreign Media Organizations and Professionals Restoring Justice to Muslims: Knowledge Production about Islamophobia and Erdogan’s Missionary Politics Discrediting the West: Civilizationist Paradigm and Negative Visions of Europe and the United States Promoting Turkish History and Civilization: Television Dramas and Muslim Audiences Conclusion Appendix Notes Bibliography Index