Past imperfect, present continuous, future indefinite?: Images of Turkey in the context of EU integration in Australian and New Zealand news media

Abstract

This paper investigates how the news media of the two Australasian countries – Australia and New Zealand (NZ) – frame the images of Turkey against the images of the European Union (EU) in the context of an ongoing EU integration. Due to its newsworthy attributes (drama and conflict), news about Turkey in the context of EU integration successfully competed for attention among journalists and audiences in the two countries in 2004. The images created by news media have arguably brought the distant Turkey and EU closer to the interpersonal worlds of Australians and New Zealanders, informing and educating them on the latest developments in these remote foreign counterparts. The study derives its importance from the assumption that the revealed string of representations (analyzed using the cognitive semantics tool of conceptual metaphor) are likely to influence NZ and Australian public and elite opinions about the EU (as an important international counterpart to both NZ and Australia), and of Turkey (as a possible member of the EU).