ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author provides an overview of the state of news media and the online public sphere in Turkey. After demonstrating how AKP's attempts to tame both realms over the past decade have made them highly vulnerable to polarisation and politicisation, the author proceed to discuss AKP-backed social media operatives as well as other groups. Lastly, the author point to some lines of inquiry that might remedy the gaps in literature concerning dis/misinformation campaigns in and from Turkey. Although Turkey's news media have depended on their ties with the ruling elite for financial survival since at least the neoliberal restructuring of the country in the 1980s, party-press parallelism, marginalisation of critical voices, and the decline in journalistic professionalism reached unprecedented levels during the AKP era. It is unclear how many teams are backed by the AKP for purposes of social media manipulation and whether the AK trolls and the New Turkey Digital Office are the same individuals.
