The communicative changes of the ACP: The Justice and Development Party ‘yesterday’ and ‘today’

‘Erdogan is becoming increasingly excessive!’ Due to reactions to situations such as the Gezi Park protests, the attempted military coup that led to the arrests of hundreds of journalists, authors and academics, the bomb attacks, the accusations that Turkey supports the terrorist organisation ISIS, the social media ban and other events, Turkey and its current president Erdogan have been in the media spotlight in recent years. The question is whether and, if so, how these recent events are also reflected in the changed communication behaviour of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the media. This thesis therefore compares the communicative change of the AKP from ‘yesterday’ (2001) to ‘today’ (2015-2017). The aim of this paper is to scientifically compare the changes, differences, similarities and developments in the party's communication strategy and ideology on the basis of two commercials from the year the AKP was founded (2001) with the current situation (2015-2017) using content analysis.