Speaking at the opening of the panel titled "New Media and Reliable Information," organised as part of the Türkiye Alumni Forum held by the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB) under the auspices of the Presidency, Director of Communications Fahrettin Altun stated that they are trying to fight for justice under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the field of communication as well, and said, "We are attempting to counter communication imperialism with our own means and build a resistance focal point at this point."
Noting that they are proud of 150 thousand Turkish graduates in over 180 countries, Director of Communications Altun stated that this is a clear picture that Türkiye is bigger than Türkiye and said, "On the one hand, this demonstrates how the higher education system in Türkiye has developed, become more qualified, and more internationalised. On the other hand, it indicates that Türkiye is now a centre of attraction, a regional power, and a global player."
Noting that Türkiye's success in the field of education is a clear success of political leadership, Director of Communications Altun said, "This is the success of our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The significant progress Türkiye has made over the past two decades is the primary cause for its current success."
Noting that there are a variety of crises in the world, including financial, health, raw material, and security crises, as seen in the global pandemic and the war between Russia and Ukraine, Director of Communications Altun said, "Because there is no order in the international arena, and the institutions claiming to establish order in the international arena are unable to do so in practice."
"Democracy and the truth crisis"
Director of Communications Altun stated that, in addition to these crises, there are two more fundamental crises in the world today, namely democracy and the truth, and that they are mutually reinforcing.
Emphasising that the will of the people is at the centre of democracy, Director of Communications Altun pointed out that the will of the people depends, above all, on conscious choice and opinion based on accurate information.
Director of Communications Altun underscored that what nourishes the will of the people is accurate and reliable information and added:
"When we observe that accurate and reliable information is becoming a more and more scarce value in this age we live in, when we see that it is no longer information and knowledge, but fake news and disinformation that makes itself more visible in the public sphere, then we have to ask: In this sense, on the basis of which accurate information will the people convey their will? How will the truth be revealed with manipulated, motivated, fake, and false information? In this regard, we are talking about a crisis of democracy. On the other hand, we are talking about a truth crisis in the age we live in today."
Noting that many social scientists refer to the current era as the "age of globalisation," Director of Communications Altun stated that Marshall McLuhan, who coined the phrase "global village" for the world, said that "in this age, everyone is aware of everyone, there are no secrets in the global village, and everyone knows everything about everyone."
From information bombardment to disinformation bombardment
Emphasising that the main focus of all analyses is information, Director of Communications Altun said that after the end of the Cold War in the 1990s and the US declaration of hegemony, the analysis of global society found a wider place for itself and the widespread use of internet technology supports this argument.
Stressing that "information bombardment", "information rain," and "information inflation" have been addressed since the 2000s, Director of Communications Altun noted that they faced the challenge of determining the reliability and accuracy of the gathered information.
Director of Communications Altun stated that the information that multiplied by reference to each other over time lost the ground of the real source and that in this process, the bombardment of disinformation began to be addressed, and the systematic generation of disinformation brought about disinformation wars, both internationally and domestically.
"A struggle for political communication in which fake news is the main fuel is a problematic struggle in itself"
Noting that disinformation wars have been discussed more frequently since the advent of new media technologies, Director of Communications Altun stated, "Unfortunately, disinformation is currently employed as a strategic communication instrument in both domestic and foreign policy on a national and international scale. Of course, a struggle for political communication in which fake news is the main fuel is a problematic struggle in itself. It is an issue that needs to be problematised, addressed, and diagnosed immediately. "
Director of Communications Altun claimed that there is a global injustice and exploitation order in the field of information and that an information order is assumed in which the West gives and non-Western societies receive, the West produces and non-Western societies consume.
Highlighting the fact that cultural imperialism primarily serves to feed media and information imperialism, Director of Communications Altun said, "If there is one major characteristic that sets the past 20 years apart, it would be Türkiye's efforts to leave the Western colonial system and to develop a policy to oppose the Westernist dependency order. In this sense, Türkiye has established its own autonomous policy and roadmap in the last 20th century and has emancipated from this Westernist dependency order. "
"We select from a list of options presented to us"
Director of Communications Altun emphasised that today we are faced with digital fascism directed by social media companies in the global arena and went on to say:
"We are discussing a series of platforms, or more accurately, ideological apparatuses, that seek to define right and wrong in a transcultural manner and regard it as their right to impose it on diverse cultures. We see that these social media companies are doing a serious systematic manipulation with the algorithms they use in a systematic way— a dictatorship of the algorithm, as I like to call it. We observe that under this dictatorship of the algorithm, certain content is continuously presented to consumers, people, customers, and individuals. In the era we referred to as "broadcasting" in the traditional media order, they produced shared content for all societies. On the other hand, we can now observe that personalised content is produced thanks to digital media and new media technologies and that these processes are managed by algorithms. In the media system we currently use, we are often unable to access the content of our choice; instead, we select from a list of options presented to us. The most fundamental aspect of this new media order is that it cultivates a kind of digital fascism that is anchored in the dictatorship of the algorithm."
"We're attempting to demonstrate that there is an area apart from the one dictated by media imperialism"
Claiming that the Twitter administration is currently publishing a series of files, attempting to ideologically impact global politics, and interfering with other countries' internal politics, Director of Communications Altun said, "Here we see a new type of hybrid tutelage bodies that try to influence the destinies of societies, direct the course of societies, and intervene in politics. We must take action against these with extreme awareness on the global stage."
Director of Communications Altun continued:
"As Türkiye, we are working to advance the fight for justice in the communication sector, which is being led by our President and whose slogans include "The world is bigger than five" and "A fairer world is possible." We are attempting to counter communication imperialism with our own means and build a resistance focal point at this juncture. In this context, we are aiming to accomplish this with the international media networks we create in Türkiye. On the one hand, we strive to be the voice of the non-Western world and oppressed societies against communication imperialism and media imperialism in the global arena, with the efforts of many of our institutions and the private sector, especially Anadolu Agency and TRT, through the international news networks we have created. On the other hand, we also work to end this injustice and this Western hegemony in the global arena at the point of producing entertainment content, which is another crucial media sector. When we take a closer look, we can see that our industry for movies and TV shows has made some major breakthroughs recently. With this breakthrough, we're attempting to demonstrate that there is an area apart from the one dictated by solely Western societies, cultural imperialism, and media imperialism in the international arena by using the potential of popular culture."
Stating that they believe digital media literacy is crucial to this process, Director of Communications Altun mentioned that they are attempting to internationalise them by providing diverse content.
Director of Communications Altun was given a gift by President Abdullah Eren of the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB) following his speech.