CREATING PUBLIC OPINION THROUGH PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT IN MEDIA: WAR DISCOURSE ANALYSIS ON THE BROKEN HILL INCIDENT IN 1915 AUSTRALIA

Information transmitted by means of communication or broadcasting instruments plays an important role as a message in getting informed about the events in communication among individuals and societies. On the other hand, information as news is not always conveyed correctly. It is named as a disinformation process in which information is deliberately transmitted as incorrect, incomplete or distorted, and this process makes an important part of social perception management in media especially in the case of war and peace discourse. This study aims at shedding light on the "Broken Hill" incident through war discourse analysis that took place before the battle of Çanakkale-Gelibolu as an important frontier during the First World War and it also made the sample of the study whose data were collected from the "Barrier Miner" newspaper. In the study, textual, linguistic and visual elements in war discourse were discussed through content analysis method. As a result of the research, effectiveness of using disinformation method in raising public awareness and perception management in old or new media circles was examined with an example from the Australian press in 1915 and the significance of the painful consequences of this case was discussed in view of today's media and readers’ view to media.