We live in an age where internet technologies (IT) and social media have become integral to our lives, allowing information to spread globally at lightning speed. This era is not only one of information but also of migration. Every year, hundreds of millions of people migrate across the globe to travel, study, work and live. Simultaneously, IT technologies facilitate hundreds of millions of connections every second, enabling the global travel of minds, ideologies and words without the need for physical movement. The internet serves as both the communication channel of a "global village," bringing people from opposite sides of the World closer together and as the medium through which an age-old communication language is produced.
The internet, which is an information pool surpassing the largest libraries in human history, on the one hand, produces almost endless information networks. On the other hand, it plays a role in imprisoning the individual in a cacophony of communication within the avalanche of information. While the ability to share information so easily makes education and acquiring knowledge easier globally, it also makes cultural and ideological invasion a great danger. It can be said that humanity has never seen a century in which communication awareness and communication literacy were so important. It can be said that there has never been an age when people could access information so easily, but it was so difficult to distinguish between right and wrong.
Today, humanity is inevitably intertwined with information technologies. As of April 2024, there were 5.44 billion internet users globally, representing 67.1% of the world's population. Out of these, 5.07 billion people, or 62.6% of the global population, were active on social media. Humanity has deeply bonded with internet technologies and social media in its private and public lives. Neither business life, relationships, politics, nor social life are free from this bond.
From this perspective, Türkiye is a country that is highly integrated with the world. Data shows how highly Turkish society is open to the world and how prone it is to new IT technologies. According to the results of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) household information technology usage survey, the rate of households with domestic internet access was 7% in 2004, and this rate reached 95.5% in 2023. Alongside this, the rate of household use of portable computers such as laptops, tablets and notebooks has increased from 0.9% to 45.2%. The mobile phone/smartphone availability rate has increased from 53.7% to 99.7%.
This data shows that Turkish society is highly adaptable to new technologies. Considering that Turks are one of the leading nations in the world in using almost all social media applications, it becomes clearer how directly affected Turkish society is by internet technologies and instant information, or misinformation, of course. This situation, on the one hand, equips Turkish society with the opportunities to communicate with the world and, on the other hand, makes it vulnerable in terms of manipulation and misinformation.
The basis of communication is the flow between the speaker and the person who understands the word. In the age of symbolism and semiotics, how you look is as important as what you are, and how the other person perceives you and your message is as important as the message you give. Communication is closely related not only to the message but also to the medium through which the message flows. Communication is a level where misunderstanding is as critical as being misunderstood. In this context, nobody has the luxury of not caring about being misunderstood.
Although the classical media environment is a platform where the truth is constructed, it seems that uncontrolled information sharing after the development of social media has made societies more fragile than ever in terms of identity and emotions. While the addiction to constantly scrolling the screens of mobile phones is an obstacle to the liberation of the human essence, the blessings of the modern age can also be used for a discourse that will liberate people.
Our religion, Islam, which orders us “to listen to what is being said, and then follow the best of it,” orders us to listen to knowledge and people on the one hand, and to acquire a wisdom that can distinguish between right and wrong, on the other hand. The verse saying, “Who is better in saying than one who invites to God, and does good works," and says: "I am one of those who have peacefully surrendered," also reveals what a Muslim's communication context should be. Saying the word in the best way is also an unalienable feature of our religion and culture.
It must be noted that in a global environment where information is globalized and right and wrong are blurred, Türkiye is one of the countries most affected by black propaganda operations. In fact, since the last periods of the Ottoman Empire, trying to improve the image of our nation in the eyes of Western countries has been a fundamental issue for administrators. It is possible to say that not just the political mistakes made in the last periods of the Ottoman Empire, as well as the failure to destroy the "sick man" image in the eyes of the rising powers and the global public, had a significant impact on the decline. In other words, it is our historical burden and historical responsibility to describe and explain ourselves correctly to others.
It seems that global power groups, as well as terrorist organizations that are the enemies of Turkish society, cannot digest Türkiye's alternative stances in both foreign and domestic policy and are trying to denigrate them. It should be underlined that while Türkiye's greatest strength in achieving its strategic goals is the “soft power” that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has over the people of many countries, the biggest obstacle is the systematic black propaganda or information blackout Türkiye is exposed to.
It would not be wrong to say that the global Israeli lobby is one of the main centers of power against Türkiye. We see that Türkiye's support for Palestine's struggle for independence and existence against occupation and its position as an alternative playmaker in its region puts the country on the target board. It seems that the Israeli lobby's dominance over global media, communication environments and Hollywood, especially in the United States, poses a significant obstacle to weakening Türkiye's image. Communication monopolies operate on a plane where information is reproduced and re-creating meaning to serve the ambitions of imperialist powers is the fundamental element of this global context.
However, protecting and strengthening Türkiye's image in the world is an issue of national independence. Essentially, this issue should be seen as an issue beyond parties and politicians and should be seen as a correct portrayal of Türkiye as a whole rather than a propaganda of daily politics. Considering that the Turkish nation has been flowing toward the West for 1,000 years, it is impossible that the huge transformation produced by the West in terms of communication technologies is not in our area of interest.
The progress made in this field in recent years is significant. The state's move to establish specialized communication institutions and adopt a broader communication strategy indicates a revolution in mentality. Additionally, the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation's (TRT) multilingual broadcasting, especially through TRT World, and initiatives like Daily Sabah, are important contributions to global media. However, these efforts have not yet achieved success in outlets like Al-Jazeera, The New York Times, BBC and CNN. Furthermore, there is a lack of sufficient, in-depth studies to accurately reflect Türkiye's image in terms of academic and scholarly work. Nevertheless, the Anatolian people's effort to shape their own image is a long and challenging process, and every step taken in this field is crucial.
In short, we live in an age where the truth is reproduced every day; 8 billion people communicate with each other more intensely than ever before in history, and at the same time, people are isolated to the extent that truth can easily be combined with lies. One of the most important agendas of this age is to establish a communication strategy that will save the communication channels of truth from the monopoly of global power centers and represent the good ones. In this respect, Türkiye faces a historical responsibility, on the one hand, to break the bad perceptions created about itself, and on the other hand, to be the voice of the oppressed of the world, especially in the Islamic geography. Efforts to represent Türkiye and the Turkish society in front of the world are a critical duty that serves to strengthen the rights of the oppressed as well as strengthen these lands.
