News Sources

In Chap. 7 , this study’s third empirical chapter, I provide quantitative data to address the question of who speaks for religion in general, Christianity, and Islam, and frames the four dimensions of the democratic approach, overall and in the three distinct weeks, in British and Turkish newspapers. Three findings are particularly noteworthy. First, I find contrasting sourcing patterns in the coverage of Christianity and Islam between British and Turkish newspapers, which can be seen in the different dominant voices in their reporting and in the contrasting geography of their sources. The prominence of political sources in the coverage of religion overall plays a central role in the shaping of these contrasting sourcing patterns. Second, I establish a clear correlation between sources and meta-frames that reinforces these contrasting pictures. Third, in both countries, the employment of the minority religious voices in the reporting of religion overall and their own faith is not conducive to the newspaper recognition of their values and to their participation in the wider democratic decision-making process. I discuss these findings in relation to the previous chapters and mainly other studies in the field.