A study of smartphone notifications from Turkey’s most popular mobile news applications has revealed that 95.5 percent of these notifications were in favor of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, the Journo digital news platform reported.
The Journo team downloaded 26 mobile news applications from media companies in Turkey and collected 1,568 notifications sent between March 21 and 28.
Among these news notifications, 382 contained the remarks of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and 229 were quotes from other AKP politicians, followed by stories on terrorist groups, diplomacy, economy and sports.
Only 40 concerned the statements of opposition parties or politicians, amounting to 4.5 percent of the total content.
The study also showed that among the 238 notifications sent by the state-run Anadolu news agency, none involved stories on the Turkish opposition.
“Those who don’t use the smartphone applications of both pro-government and critical media outlets are ill-informed,” the Journo report said.
For instance, the report continues, when the Turkish lira’s value started to fall against the US dollar last week, only critical outlets sent notifications, while as the lira began to gain, only pro-government media notified users.
Journo also noted that the Turkish media have extensively been using mobile notifications, far more than their counterparts in other countries. Turkey will hold local elections on Sunday.