Can Some Words in News Content Create Negative Perception in terms of Sectoral Image? Aquaculture or Fish Farms

Abstract

News and columns in print media are one of the most efficient forms of mass media in terms of transferring its ideas to society. In this study, the aim was to examine news content mentioning the Turkish aquaculture sector, which has recently gained acceleration in production and export, in national newspapers based on some keywords depicting the sector, and to research whether or not the tendency of news content has changed depending on the keywords. The study has been performed with content analysis. For this purpose, the content of news and columns published between 2010 and 2019 in the highest circulation national newspapers were searched with two groups. The first group involved news and column rankings resulting from “aquaculture and/or culture fisheries” keywords, while the second group involved rankings based on “fish farm and/or fish farms” keywords. 575 of 896 news and columns were included as samples. News related to Turkey’s aquaculture sector was researched based on five different categories: publishing date, category, approach, the tendency of news content and subject. According to the results of this study, it is found that the aquaculture sector has been averagely portrayed with more positive information (53,74%) than negative (46,26%) in Turkish newspapers. But it has also been demonstrated that a clear majority (91%) of the first group has a positive content tendency, having subjects such as production quantity, employment, support and exports. Conversely, the second group generally has a negative content tendency (68%) having subjects such as environmental pollution and environmental protection, taste-price-naturality-quality and sector-tourism conflict. According to statistical analysis, it has been determined that there is a statistically significant relationship between keywords and the tendency of news content (p<0,05). It can be said thanks to the findings that “aquaculture” and “culture fisheries” keywords can create a positive symbolic perception in public opinion for the sector, while “fish farm” and “fish farms” can create negative perceptions. Thus, this study has drawn attention to the fact that perceptions of society created by the news and columns in media are another factor that needs to be considered and managed by both businesses and government in terms of the sectoral image perspective.