Violence of the Press: The Case of “Stone-Throwing Children” in Political Demonstrations

In this study, “stone-throwing children” cliche which has become widespread in the media due to the demonstrations held in Cizre on 15th February 2006 on the anniversary of capture of Abdullah Öcalan is analysed in the base of three themes and six sample cases. In the study, “child as victims of violence”, “child as the perpetrator of violence” and “child as interlocutor of preventive measures of the state” are designated as the themes for analysis. In order to examine these themes and sample cases, six daily newspapers, Akşam, Cumhuriyet, Hürriyet, Ortadoğu, Taraf and Yeni Şafak are chosen from the national press. The news texts on these sample cases in the dailies mentioned above are analysed in line with Teun van Dijk’s method of discourse analysis. In the method of van Dijk, news texts can be examined at two levels called micro and macro. While the thematic and the schematic structures of news texts are focused at the macro level, lexical choices, syntax, local coherence and rhetoric are analysed at the micro one. This study also focuses on whether actual journalism practises are sensitive to children’s rights in news texts on children commonly associated with crime in Turkish media. In addition to this, the study attempts to make suggestions as to how journalism practises can be sensitive to children’s rights.