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Social Cognition and Media Psychology Uncovered:

Social Representations of Chinese on Turkish Newspapers

Assist.Prof.Dr. Ulas Basar GezginE-mail: ulasbasar@gmail.com

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Abstract• The area of social cognition involves how people interpret the social phenomena such as other

people, countries, nations, social groups etc. The notion of stereotypes is one of the most common topics studied as one of the keys to uncover psychology of social cognition. The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘stereotype’ as “a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing”. Due to the non-existence of Chinatowns and thus low social accessibility of Chinese people, Chinese are less known by Turkish people face-to-face. The information about Chinese are mostly acquired from news media and fictional works such as Jackie Chan films and kung-fu movies. The absence of face-to-face contact among many and the selectivity of media and films over social representations of Chinese might be held responsible for stereotypicality of social representations of Chinese in Turkey, rather than genuineness. Secondly, the area of media psychology studies the link between media and people’s psychology including people’s stereotypes and social representations. Mass communication theories consider media users as passive recipients which are shaped by media corporations, while more recent theories revamp this equation. In this paper, matching the discussions within media psychology and intercultural communication, the social representations of Chinese on Turkish newspapers are investigated. It is observed that Chinese appear on Turkish newspapers with extraordinary news, male-female imbalance, one child policy, political issues, commerce, long life, made-in-China products, consumerism, electronic products, hackers, tainted products, archeological and scientific discoveries, economic competition between China and U.S. etc.

• Keywords: Media psychology, social cognition, stereotypes, Chinese, intercultural communication

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Social Representations

• Social representations are the cognitive structures that “organise the worldviews of community members and guide their interpretation of reality and their everyday practices” (Campbell & Jovchelovitch, 2000, p.260). In contrast to the purely cognitive approaches, they “do not originate from pure reasoning or information processing. They are rooted in the past, culture, tradition and language” (Markova, 2003, p.xii).

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Social Cognition

• Whereas social cognition “is the study of the mental processes involved in perceiving, attending to, remembering, thinking about, and making sense of the people in our social world” (Moskowitz, 2005, p.3). The social cognition approach exclusively focuses on the individual (Augoustinos, Walker & Donaghue, 2006), while social representations approach situates him/her within a social context.

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Stereotypes• One of the major concepts within this context is social

stereotypes which refer to simplified mental representations about a particular group of people. They are usually negative, but positive stereotyping is possible as well. Stereotypes don’t correctly represent the social world, since they are just simplifications which are not capable of capturing the complexity of the social world. McGarty, Yzerbyt & Spears (2002) states that

• [w]ithout individuals there could be no society, but unless individuals also perceive themselves to belong to groups, that is, to share characteristics, circumstances, values and beliefs with other people, then society would be without structure or order. These perceptions of groups are called stereotypes (McGarty, Yzerbyt & Spears, 2002, p.1).

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Method

• Hurriyet Newspaper Archive• 1 January 2013-27 September 2013

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News That Involve Chinese • Top Columnists on China• Gila Benmayor 71• Vahap Munyar 38• Hadi Uluengin 34• Emre Özpeynirci 27• Yalçın Bayer 27 • Engin Kratzer 20• Doğan Hızlan 15• Sevil Atasoy 18• Kanat Atkaya 14• Yalçın Doğan 13 • Serdar Turgut 12• Fatih Altaylı 11• (Caution: The start date for each

columnists)• Source: Hurriyet Archive

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News That Involve Chinese by Section1 Jan 1997-27 Sept 2013

Source: Hurriyet Archive

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Chinese on Turkish Newspapers

• Extraordinary news, • Male-female

imbalance, • One child policy, • Political issues, • Commerce, • Long life, • Made-in-China

products,

• Consumerism, • Electronic products, • Hackers, • Tainted products, • Archeological and

scientific discoveries, • Economic competition

between China and U.S. etc.

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ECONOMY & COMMERCE NEWS

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Economy & Commerce: Metro

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Economy & Commerce: Metro

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Economy & Commerce: Metro

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Economy & Commerce: Metro

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Economy & Commerce: Metro

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Economy & Commerce: Automobiles

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Economy & Commerce: Automobiles

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Economy & Commerce: Automobiles

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Economy & Commerce: Automobiles

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Economy & Commerce: Fairs

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Economy & Commerce: Fairs

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Economy & Commerce: Fairs

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Economy & Commerce: Energy

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Economy & Commerce: Energy

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Economy & Commerce: Energy

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Economy & Commerce: Energy

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Economy & Commerce: Energy

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Economy & Commerce

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Economy & Commerce

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Economy & Commerce

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Economy & Commerce

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Economy & Commerce

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Economy & Commerce

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Economy & Commerce

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Economy & Commerce

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Economy & Commerce

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EXTRAORDINARY NEWS

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Extraordinary

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Extraordinary

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Extraordinary

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Extraordinary

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Extraordinary

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Extraordinary

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Extraordinary

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Extraordinary

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Extraordinary

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Extraordinary

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Extraordinary

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Extraordinary: Nouveaux Riches

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Extraordinary: Nouveaux Riches

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Extraordinary: Nouveaux Riches

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POLITICS NEWS

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Politics

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Politics

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Politics

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Politics

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Politics

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Politics

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Politics

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Politics (Encounters)

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Politics (Encounters)

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FOOD NEWS

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Food

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Food

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Food

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Food/Fair

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Food/Fair

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Food/Fair

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Food

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CULTURE & ARTS NEWS

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Culture & Arts

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Culture & Art

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Culture & Art

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Culture & Arts

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Culture & Arts

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Culture & Arts

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ELECTRONICS

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Electronics

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Electronics

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Electronics

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Electronics

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Electronics

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Electronics

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WUSHU

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Wushu

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Wushu

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Wushu

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Wushu

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Wushu

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Wushu

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ENCOUNTERS

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Encounters: Tourism

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Encounters: Tourism

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Encounters: Tourism

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Encounters/Metro

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LABOR

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Labor

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Labor

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Labor

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Labor

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TRAVEL

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Travel

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Travel

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Travel

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EMERGING THEMES

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Emerging Themes: Space

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Emerging Themes: Sports

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Emerging Themes: Pollution

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Emerging Themes: Pollution

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Chinese on Turkish Newspapers (2013)

• Economy & Commerce

• Extraordinary• Politics• Food• Culture & arts• Wushu• Electronics

• Labor• Encounters• Travel• Emerging

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Discussion

• Usually on economy or IT pages• Tr restaurants in Cn & Cn restaurants in Tr.• Martial arts.• Travelogues.• Sport news not covered.• Beijing Olympics effect.• News about China and about Chinese elsewhere (including

Turkey).• China vs. Chinese (country vs. people).• News from Atlantic agencies vs. Chinese sources vs. Turkish

sources.

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Discussion

• Impression management• Outgroup homogeneity (linked to extraordinary news)• Post-colonial discourse?, encounters• China as a mediator in Syrian conflict (but not

Chinese). • Temporality and impact of news• Encounters can cover fairs, sports and culture & arts

events as well. • Categories are not mutually exclusive.

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Limitations

• Only covering printed materials; no TV, no social media.

• Covering only one newspaper (but popular) in a single year (2013).

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Future Studies• News as the reflection of representations vs. News building representations (both)• The relationship btw social realities vs. News.• What are worthy of news, how they are omitted or included, how they are

doctored etc.• How the same news are represented on Chinese media.• How Turkish are represented on Chinese media. • Differences in centrality of the news (e.g. Percentage of Turkish/Chinese on

headlines); • Interviews with top Turkish columnists on China about media representations. • Comparisons of other Turkish newspapers. • Newspapers vs. other media sources. • Who represents? Foreign agencies, Turkish agencies, Turkish media companies,

journalists, governments? etc.• Reader comments

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Future Studies

• Yearly comparisons could be done in the future. Trendy topics each year could be different, but some of them are common. Recurring themes provide the underlying representations.

• Recurring themes vs. Emerging themes vs. Trendy themes

• In numerical comparisons, annual ups and lows should be considered. Also before 1997 & 1973.

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Conclusion

• Economy & Commerce

• Extraordinary• Politics• Food• Culture & arts• Wushu• Electronics

• Labor• Encounters• Travel• Emerging