ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the news media in Turkey affect public perceptions of corporations. We survey the defi nition of corporate reputation in the Turkish context and the progress of agenda-setting theory studies in the country. The fi rst agenda-setting study in Turkey was completed for a master’s thesis by Çelebi in 1990, and only a few studies have been carried out since then. There are few agenda-setting studies applied to public relations in Turkey. This chapter summarizes corporate reputation rankings in Turkey and then presents original research on fi rst-level agenda setting in Turkey, using Capital magazine’s “Most Admired Companies” for the reputation data and 18 daily Turkish newspapers for media data. The chapter also surveys Turkey’s media system and highlights issues relating to media ownership, and its effects. Public relations’ history, development, and education is reviewed with a focus on current research fi ndings and data provided for and from international associations. In Turkey, the lack of regular public opinion polls, corporate reputation public opinion polls, and especially the lack of comparative data extending back over several decades, limit the comprehensiveness of research in these areas.
