Birkbeck, one of the about a dozen universities that forms the University of London, making it the most populous in the world, is announcing the arrival of Prof Yasemin Giritli İnceoğlu who will be at the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities in the university in London as a Visiting Research Fellow during the spring.
According to an explanation from the university to that effect, her Fellowship is concentrating on different types of discourse such as hate speech, discriminatory discourse and dangerous speech. It would extend to discussion of how the media represent the ideology of power by quoting to Stuart Hall, Saussure, Van Dijk, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky.
“Hate speech”, said the statement, is a complicated and controversial term that is difficult to understand. “The question “What is hate speech?” brings with it questions such as “Where is the boundary between freedom of expression and hate speech?”, “Is hate speech only produced against persons or minority people/groups?”, “Does every discourse that involves negative expressions and sentiments constitute hate speech?”, “How can we explain the relationship between hate speech and hate crimes?”
These questions are addressed through examples of hate speech disseminated or produced/reproduced by the media, it is further added, pointing out how the research project conducts a comparative study of Turkey and England by comparing the media coverage of the “others” in both countries’ main stream media by analysing the hate speech and/or discriminative discourse.
As part of her Fellowship, Prof İnceoğlu offers a couple of seminars to researchers, graduate or postgraduate students and members of the general public, drawing attention to the discriminatory (particularly against ethnic and religious identities), sexist and homophobic discourse and news containing hate speech, with the aim of producing knowledge on the concept of “hate speech”, and creating a space for discussion on methods to promote the use of an informed language on human rights and minorities.
The seminars which are aimed at unveiling the existence and the rise of hate speech in the absence of an independent, accountable and transparent media, explores solutions and make recommendations to combat the problem. The first one starts March 8th, 2022 with the theme of “media coverage of hate speech”
The background of the professor released by the statement shows that she worked as an academic in Marmara University (1984–2004) and Galatasaray University (2004–2016), all in Turkish universities; was the former Dean of the Galatasaray University Communication Faculty. She is a member of the UNESCO International Clearinghouse on Children and Violence on the Screen and of the American Biography Institute. She is one of the founder members of the Media Watch Platform in Turkey (2008) and a member of the Advisory Board of Media Disclaimer Center, Association for Social Policies Sexual Identity and Sexual Orientation and Transparency International. Since 2016, Yasemin works on Media Pluralism Monitor Turkey Project that is by supported by Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom and European Commission, financed by the European Union. Her current research interests are based on hate speech and hate crimes in the media, international communication, media pluralism and peace journalism.
