Identity

The Discursive Construction of Childhood in Three Turkish Children’s Books about the Cyprus Problem

Mazlum Kemal Dağdelen & Nico Carpentier

Abstract

This research analyses the construction of childhood in three children’s books related to the Cyprus Problem through the lens of Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The discourse on childhood, deployed in books whose narratives are related to an armed conflict, is seen to have four nodal points: innocence, citizenship, savagery, and otherness. Our discourse-theoretical analysis, which uses a retroductive approach (Glynos and Howarth), demonstrates that in these three children’s books, the nodal points of innocence and citizenship are particularly strong, but all four nodal points are present. The analysis also shows how these nodal points intersect with the discourses of victimhood and militarism, which alter the articulation of the childhood discourse itself and produce significant internal tensions. These alterations and tensions demonstrate the deeply political nature of the childhood discourse at times of war.

Keywords
childhood, Cyprus Problem, childhood constructionism, discourse theory, war, victimisation, militarisation

Dağdelen, Mazlum Kemal, & Carpentier, Nico (2024). The discursive construction of childhood in three Turkish children’s books about the Cyprus Problem. International Research in Children’s Literature, 17(2), 144–159. https://doi.org/10.3366/ircl.2024.0560

“Today’s Children, Tomorrow’s Mujahideen”: A Discourse-Theoretical Analysis of the Militarist Discourse in a Turkish Cypriot Children’s Magazine

Mazlum Kemal Dağdelen

Abstract

This research offers a discourse-theoretical analysis of the construction of the militarist discourse in Turkish Cypriot children’s magazines, with a specific focus on the magazine Tuncer. The selected data for analysis consist of 14 issues published between January 1967 and December 1968. The chosen period is deliberate, aligning with crucial turning points in the Cyprus Problem, marked by heightened collective violence. To better understand the articulation of the militarist discourse within these issues of Tuncer, a theoretical model is developed drawing on Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The militarist discourse is seen to have 4 nodal points: (1) the army as a national protection assemblage, (2) obligated citizenship, (3) the sanctity of sacrifice, and (4) the need for the destruction of the enemy. The analysis demonstrates the presence of all 4 nodal points, with particular emphasis on the strength of the army as a national protection assemblage and the need for the destruction of the enemy. Furthermore, the contextualization within the Cyprus Problem unveils internal conflations, highlighting the deeply political nature of the militarist discourse.

Keywords
militarism, children’s magazines, discourse theory, childhood, Cyprus Problem

Dagdelen, Mazlum Kemal (2024) Media and Propaganda | “Today’s Children, Tomorrow’s Mujahideen”: A Discourse-Theoretical Analysis of the Militarist Discourse in a Turkish Cypriot Children’s Magazine. International Journal of Communication, [S.l.], v. 18, p. 20, sep. 2024. ISSN 1932-8036. Available at: <https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/22345>.

Bridging the Discursive and Material Dimensions of Europeanity and Europeanisation A Participatory Semantic Map Approach

Vaia Doudaki , Miloš Hroch , Sara Cannizzaro , Andrea Miconi & Nico Carpentier

Abstract

The article aims to capture the significatory diversity of the concepts of Europeanity and Europeanisation, through the development of a semantic map in order to visualize the different concepts that define Europeanity and Europeanisation, and their interconnections. Embedded in the field of Communication and Media Studies, this semantic map combines 19 different approaches, structured through one main dimension, the discursive versus the material, which allows bridging the major rift in the conceptual reflections about Europeanity and Europeanisation. Moreover, the semantic map uses two support dimensions, with the discursive dimension intersecting with the essentialist versus relationist dimension, and the material dimension intersecting with the socio-spatial versus politico-spatial dimension. In order to construct this semantic map, phases of both general and targeted literature reviews were combined with a participatory theory-building method, which was grounded in collaborative knowledge building and collaborative theory construction approaches.

Keywords
Semantic map; Europeanity; Europeanisation; Discursive; Material.

Carpentier, Nico, Hroch, Miloš, Cannizzaro, Sara, Miconi, Andrea & Doudaki, Vaia (2023). Bridging the discursive and material dimensions of Europeanity and Europeanisation: A participatory semantic map approach. Observatorio (OBS), 17*(1), 100-133. https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS17120232251

Gendered constructions of migration in Europe: An intersectional analysis of inclusionary and exclusionary discourses on social media platforms

Panos Kompatsiaris , Sara Cannizzaro , Nico Carpentier , Babette Lagrange , Sofie Van Bauwel , Miloš Hroch , Vaia Doudaki , Jim Ingebretsen Carlson , Ioanna Archontaki & Andrea Miconi

Abstract

This article explores intersectional discourses of migration and gender in the social media environments of three different European countries – Belgium, Greece, and Italy. Through a discursive analysis, we identify (1) an inclusionary discourse providing constructions of gender that welcome migrants in European societies, articulated around the nodal points of empathy and care, visibility, equality and the acknowledgement of societal relevance, and (2) an exclusionary discourse providing constructions of gender that prohibit the inclusion of migrants in European societies, articulated through the nodal points of threat, burden, radical difference and irrelevance or invisibility. For the analysis, we retrieved a dataset of 1000 posts per country about migration from Facebook and Twitter (now X) and we selected posts with a gender dimension. The article shows how the discursive struggle over migration and gender takes shape across inclusionary and exclusionary discourses that relate to the left/right-wing political spectrum in Europe.

Keywords
Europe, exclusionary, gender, inclusionary, migration, social media.

Kompatsiaris, Panos, Cannizzaro, Sara, Carpentier, Nico, Lagrange, Babette, Van Bauwel, Sofie, Hroch, Miloš, Doudaki, Vaia, Ingebretsen Carlson, Jim, Archontaki, Ioanna, & Miconi, Andrea (2026). Gendered constructions of migration in Europe: An intersectional analysis of inclusionary and exclusionary discourses on social media platforms. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494251407159

Constructing the discursive frontiers: A discourse-theoretical analysis of the Blue Homeland doctrine in a TRT documentary

Mazlum Kemal Dagdelen

Abstract

This article examines how Turkey’s maritime borders are discursively constructed in the Mavi Vatan [Blue Homeland] doctrine as sites of national identity, historical justice, and power. Analysing a TRT documentary on Mavi Vatan and its YouTube audience reception, this study identifies three nodal points, namely, Homeland, Justice, and Power, that organise a hegemonic discourse linking territorial claims to existential questions. The findings illustrate how the hegemonic claims of the Mavi Vatan doctrine naturalise controversial maritime boundaries, mobilise collective emotion, and construct antagonistic others such as Greece and Western powers. The study highlights the crucial role of media in shaping border imaginaries and argues that the doctrine’s success in unifying national sentiment also constrains democratic debate and diplomatic flexibility. By analysing the discursive processes behind frontier-making, the article advances understanding of contemporary nationalism and the politics of borders.

Keywords
Borders; Nationalism; Blue Homeland; Eastern Mediterranean; Discourse Theory; Discourse Theoretical Analysis; Public Service Media.

Dagdelen, Mazlum Kemal. (2026). Constructing the discursive frontiers: A discourse-theoretical analysis of the Blue Homeland doctrine in a TRT documentary. Revija za humanistične in družbene vede: Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences, 2025(2), 30–53. https://doi.org/10.33700/1580-7118.27.2.28-51(2025)

Gradual Disappearance of the Old. Apocalypse in Eastern European Landscapes

Štěpán Šanda

Abstract

This paper examines the representations of Eastern European landscapes in local video games with post-apocalyptic settings. To have an emotional impact, the whole genre needs to be anchored in our lived world or resemble it at least and landscape representation is an effective tool to show some of the changes brought about by the more or less specified catastrophe. Those changes can also constitute new relationships with nature as we usually see, for example, cities overgrown with vegetation, which can represent motives of hope in this kind of games. However, since games, like any cultural artifact, are shaped by societal conditions, this paper considers the post-apocalyptic games S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, Metro 2033 and DayZ made and set in Eastern Europe. This region is not the traditional centre of the video game industry and therefore the approach to those themes can be different. Concerning their specific geopolitical position and based on close reading I state that those games’ landscapes mirror the state of constant transformation of post-communism.

Keywords
landscape, Eastern Europe, post-communist, environment, the West

Šanda, Šanda (2025) Gradual Disappearance of the Old. Apocalypse in Eastern European Landscapes. In N. Denk et al. (Eds.) Gaming the Apocalypse.
https://doi.org/10.48341/6q1q-6322

Mediated hierarchies of suffering? International refugee organizations’ public communication strategies for the Syrian and Central African crises (2015–2018)

David Ongenaert Stijn Joye

Abstract

As forcibly displaced people become increasingly marginalized, international refugee organizations create humanitarian communication to shape public opinions. Prior research has mainly examined how forcibly displaced people are represented in humanitarian communication, largely neglecting who and what are portrayed. This study examines who and what are (not) represented in the public communication of three major international refugee organizations regarding the Syrian and Central African crises (2015–2018). Drawing on a quantitative content analysis of 1244 press releases and news stories, we identified both hegemonic and partial counter-hegemonic humanitarian representations. The organizations predominantly covered the Syrian crisis, while forcibly displaced people and refugee organizations were the dominant sources, refining earlier studies. The former are represented in conventionalized, sociodemographically skewed ways. This study advances debates on hierarchies of suffering, demonstrating that humanitarian communication reproduces those not only through representational discourses but also through patterns of selection, (in)visibility and perceived deservingness, across and within crises.

Keywords
Distant suffering, forced migration, humanitarian communication, international refugee organizations, media representation, public communication, quantitative content analysis, refugeeness

Ongenaert, D., & Joye, S. (2026). Mediated hierarchies of suffering? International refugee organizations’ public communication strategies for the Syrian and Central African crises (2015–2018). International Communication Gazette, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/17480485261498553

Moving images, moved audiences? A focus group study into audience interpretations of distant suffering in The Impossible (2012)

Valerie Vanhove, Stijn Joye & David Ongenaert

Abstract

While distant suffering has been thoroughly explored in factual media such as news and documentaries, this article examines Western audiences’ interpretations of distant suffering and non-Western ‘Others’ in the format of fiction films. Through five focus groups (N = 22) in Flanders, the northern Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, this explorative study examines whether the film The Impossible (2012) fosters empathy, raises awareness and encourages action towards the portrayed distant suffering. The film tells the story of a British family during the tsunami of 2004 and is largely based on true events. Findings show that the film proves effective in increasing Western viewers’ awareness of distant suffering. However, this sense of closeness mostly resulted in passivity and rarely translated into concrete action. A proper distance from the portrayed Other appears crucial for Western viewers to be motivated to show compassion and consider action. Nevertheless, the study also suggests that audiences’ emotional connection is heavily influenced by individual film consumption preferences.

Keywords
audience research, focus groups, fictional media, disaster films, distant suffering, domestication, social psychology

Vanhove, V., Joye, S., & Ongenaert, D. (2026). Moving images, moved audiences? A focus group study into audience interpretations of distant suffering in The Impossible (2012). European Journal of Cultural Studies, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494261465785