Research Information System
Uluslararası Toplumsal Bilimler Dergisi TOBİDER, vol.7, no.2, pp.347-375, 2023 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
In public discourse, the two typically different concepts “religion” and “violence” are frequently used nowadays in the same context through the agency of mass media. As a result of this process, religion and violence seem so indisputably intertwined that even questioning this combination can be considered meaningless. The conceptual or perceptive connections between religion, violence and mass media as main guiding elements of human perception are illustrated and accordingly discussed in this paper. The perception is managed in such a manner that even intrinsically and ontologically a peace generating institution like religion can smoothly be put and mentioned together with its antonyms such as violence through the medium of mass media. In fact, these two concepts should form the two opposite ends of a dichotomy. However, in this case, the binary opposition concerned is transformed cunningly into the singularity, in which religion is directly equated with violence and terror and vice versa, in which violence and terror can be mentioned in the same breath as religion. The decisive role of mass media in this transformation process is also critically discussed by taking thought control into account. In this respect, probable functions of the use of hard and soft power are brought to the fore in order to exert thought and action control whilst manufacturing necessary consent or dissent.