Voting and the Press in a Polarised Predominant Party System: The Case of Turkey

In Turkey both political and media polarization is on the rise. At the same time, a predominant party system is emerging based on the thre general elections in 2002, 2007 and 2011. We use pre and post-election panel data from these three elections to delineate how the use of media and newspapers in particular by individuals during these election campaigns may have influenced their decision to turnout to vote and party choice. Did reliance on the press for information serve to reinforce the preexisting political views of readers or change them? And what about readers who were undecided?