Framing as a Social Movement’s Transnational Strategy: The Gülen Movement’s EU-Turkey Discourses in the Post-2016 Online Media

Abstract

This paper focuses on framing as a social movement’s transnational
strategy. Applying the cultural approach to framing analysis, it investigates
how the Gülen movement, as a social group with restricted access to
national gatekeepers, uses discourse to internationalise a domestic power
struggle with a powerful opponent. Moving the struggle to the
international arena presents a discursive opportunity that determines
which ideas become visible and legitimate both internationally and
nationally. The importance of such internationalization increases in times of
conflict and the media play a vital role in this process. The paper argues
that the editors of the pro-Gülen movement foreign online platforms
established after the movement was forced into exile following the failed
2016 coup, use strategic framing to tailor their frames for the host context
and culture. That increases the resonance of their frames and the potential
of the discursive opportunity. The article confirms the previous findings that
media are a crucial resource for transnational social movements because
policymakers are sensitive to public opinion, which is shaped by media
frames.