Fantasies, anxieties, and subjectivities: TRT World’s multimodal subject production of ‘Türkiye’ through coverage of geopolitics in Syria, Somalia, and Libya

<p dir="ltr">Ontological security research has undergone significant development since its introduction to International Relations in the early 2000s. A Lacanian approach to ontological security has introduced questions of subjectivity and the affective dimensions that drive a subject’s endless pursuit of ontological security. However, a fascination with the state and state elites continues to dominate the discussion. To address this, this thesis draws on insights from ontological security and critical geopolitics to argue that subject production is not confined to the state apparatus and instead occurs across multiple political sites, including the media. Broadening the focus from the state to alternative political sites enables the expansion of methodological tools that help to identify subject production and the pursuit for ontological security, incorporating the visual alongside oral and written discourses. By conducting a semiotic and visual framing analysis of videos published from February 2016 to date, the thesis articulates TRT World as a political site producing ‘Türkiye’ through its audio-visual reporting of geopolitics in Syria, Somalia, and Libya. The thesis reveals how TRT World constructs multiple fantasy narratives to communicate beatific and horrific scenarios, alongside the obstacles, to ‘Türkiye’s wholeness. Furthermore, the thesis contributes and evidences a rationale for considering the writing of space as a tool from which political sites producing political subjects pursue fantasies of completeness.</p><p dir="ltr"><br></p>