Devlet Destekli Enformasyon Savaşında Süreklilik ve Değişim: Dezenformasyon, Propaganda ve Yalan Haberler

The strict regulations and state control over media, along with the utilization of media content for government propaganda, are not new phenomena, rather they appear as a recurring feature in Turkish politics. In the initial part of the article, by taking a historical perspective, I investigate the intricate relationship between the media industry and political actors to map out the government’s attempts to control and deploy media throughout the history of modern Türkiye. In the second part, I describe the historical continuum in the utilization of propaganda strategies under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. Drawing on Althusser’s notion of the Ideological State Apparatuses (ISA) and relying on the collective case study method, I delve into the emergent information warfare strategies of the government and pro-government media for the deployment of political disinformation as a form of state-sponsored communication policy to manipulate the national public. During Erdogan's presidency, both the government’s and pro-government media’s information warfare and propaganda strategies have significantly transformed as the AKP sought to exert greater control over independent media and dissenting voices. I conclude that in addition to correspondences with previously dominant strategies of the propaganda for the strict control of the traditional media, under the AKP regime, leveraging and disseminating disinformation and manipulating content in media through fake news have become a prevalent and unofficially sanctioned strategic tool as well as a large-scale and centered institutionalized political activity in the information warfare.