Psychological Operations in Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria: A Case Study of the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT)

By learning about the role and effects of the media in the field of international communication, governments are increasingly using the techniques of psychological operations to influence and persuade public opinion. One such case is Turkey's military offensive in northern Syria, which has been widely reported in various international media. The study seeks to discover the psychological techniques used by the Turkish National Broadcasting Corporation (TRT). In this way, 192 news by purposive Sampling in the form of relevant theoretical saturation on the official website in Turkish from October 8 to November 13, 2017 were analyzed by the method of qualitative content analysis. The results of this study indicated that the maximum use of various techniques in order to persuade the people of the country in the form of psychological operations has been the main policy of this media and in line with Turkey's military operations. The media has used ten techniques of psychological operations including anesthesia, incitement, labeling, incitement, non-verbal language, divisiveness, intimidation, enmity, dehumanization of the enemy and ideation.