Evaluating the Role of Media during Elections: The Case of Local Elections of 31st March 2019 in Turkey

Abstract

This article attempts to discuss the importance of pluralist perspective on the basis of the election coverage and aims to understand how elections are re-ported and whether election news includes policy debates in a democratic public sphere. It also assesses the political news during election times accord-ing to its democratic values and compares differences and similarities in commercial news media over the case of local elections dated 31st March 2019 in Turkey. The findings have shown that the election news coverage was not included any critical and pluralist debate on policy issues, instead, con-centrated on the polling data, polemics, and campaign tactics. In conclusion, it has been seen that the digital-born news site also has similar mainstream attitudes and the commercial media has been in line with media logic by dis-regarding critical debates.