Anlamsal Kaydırma ve Dijital Dezenformasyon: Siyasi Söylemde Bağlamın Sistematik Olarak Dönüştürülmesi

Abstract

With the widespread use of digital media, disinformation is having a significant impact on public perception and public debate. Disinformation content activates users' cognitive biases, distorting their perception of reality, weakening trust, and hindering the healthy conduct of public debates. This situation is not limited to individual misinformation but also produces long-term negative effects on political participation, democratic processes, and media credibility at the societal level. Contextotomy, considered a subtype of disinformation, presents accurate information in an incorrect or incomplete context, misleading users. Compared to fabrication, erroneous attribution, satire, and distortion, contextotomy is a disinformation method whose inaccuracy is more difficult to detect and is frequently used, especially in political news. This study aims to examine the phenomenon of disinformation, which harms the news ecosystem in both traditional and new media, hindering users from obtaining accurate information and making informed political choices, especially during election periods, focusing on the method of decontextualization. Using qualitative content analysis, 22 pieces of content created using decontextualization on the fact-checking website Malumatfuruş were structurally analyzed. The study found that politicians and party leaders were the most frequently targeted groups in the decontextualized content, followed by journalists, and that the most common method used was cropping/extraction.