Media, Affect, and Authoritarian Futures in “New Turkey:” Spectacular Confessions on Television in the Post-Coup Era

Abstract

A spectacular shock doctrine is reformatting Turkey since the failed coup in July 2016. We examine how the television economy transformed the organization behind the coup (FETÖ) from a public secret into a spectacle. We investigate the televised confessions of former Gulenists, who revealed the scandalous FETÖ’s inner workings live on television. We argue that former Gulenists’ media performances based on confession, apology, and spectacular secrecy captured public affect to justify their complicity with the putschists rather than bringing political justice. The government capitalized on these confessions as part of its strategic information warfare to tame the opposition after the coup, while reconstructing Gulenists as a weird cult rather than a political network. As the citizens were bombarded with affective televisual confessions, politicians secured authoritarian futures without a glimpse of justice, because these shows spectacularly erased the networks behind the coup.