Framing Syrian Refugee Return on TRT Haber in the Post-Assad Period

OpenAlex Türkçe

This study examines how TRT Haber framed the narrative of the return of Syrian refugees to Turkey following the collapse of the Assad regime on December 8, 2024, and how this narrative was perceived in video comments on TRT Haber's YouTube ecosystem. The dataset includes 33 return-themed news texts selected from 15,938 news articles published in the “Turkey” category on TRT Haber between December 8, 2024, and November 1, 2025, along with four return-themed YouTube videos and 3,000 comments written under these videos. Data was collected using a web scraper developed in Python 3.6, while comments on the YouTube videos were extracted using an API key. Analyses were performed using MAXQDA Analytics Pro. News texts were encoded into eight themes according to Entman's framing approach, and inter-theme co-occurrence patterns were evaluated through a code-relations matrix. The findings demonstrate that the theme of “voluntary, safe, and dignified return” functions as a central anchor point in the narrative and is strongly linked to the themes of “border crossings, administrative processes, and migration management” and “the end of the war and the collapse of the regime.” Sentiment analysis of YouTube comments (n = 2,996) shows the dominance of the neutral category, while positive and negative clusters point to a fragmented reception pattern. By analyzing both the institutional production and platform-based reception of the return discourse, the study offers a comparative snapshot of the thematic backbone of return discussions in Türkiye and their emotional repercussions in the digital realm.