Erdogan’s rise to power through the media

econoscale

In Turkey, media is not a business, it is a business unit. Most media companies are subsidiaries of much larger corporations and function as a marketing and business development department for the parent company. Every major newspaper or tv channel is owned by a conglomerate operating in various sectors. These conglomerates get contracts from the government, be it in mining, construction, infrastructure or energy, and they use their ‘media arm’ to promote the government interest and win support for it from the public. In return for the promotion, the government awards the contracts to the conglomerates. Thus, the media arm of the conglomerate helps expand the business.

Asymmetric rewards and punishment: The reward for supporting the government could be business contracts but the punishment for not supporting it is NOT ‘no contracts’; it is getting tax fines and possibly facing bankruptcy. Thus, the choice for media bosses is unquestioning…

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