Examining National Identity Building From a Network Analysis Perspective the Semantic Structure of Kemalist Journal Ulku

Abstract

This study focuses on Ulku the official journal of the People's Houses (Halkevieri), which was designed to create an ideology for the modern Turkish state as opposed to Ottomanism. It is aimed to examine the semantic structure of Ulku version of Kemalist modernism through holistic approach. This allows us to examine the whole by inquiring the relationship between the words in the selected articles instead of looking at the content of the journal to search for previously determined themes. Unveiling latent meaning of Ulku can have important consequences for communication literature in terms of building national identity. The findings contribute to our grasping of identity building communication practices. The study also demonstrates the utility and contribution of semantic network analysis for understanding of Ulku , as a vehicle for replacing the traditional even 'archaic' Ottoman-Muslim identity with the new modern-western identity. The initial findings of research demonstrate six permanent items (history, big, nation, year, homeland, Turkish), addressing embedded ideological latent meanings related to the modern national identity.