Abstract

The power of the media to persuade, change and transform public opinion is undeniable. Through the process of propaganda and consent production, the media determines the public's agenda and is effective in the adoption of an idea or the display of a behavior. The main source of information used in the Covid-19 epidemic, which affected the world agenda, including our country, was mainstream media and new media. However, it has been frequently emphasized, especially in the mainstream media, that Covid-19 vaccines are the most effective method of protection in the treatment of the epidemic and that they must be used in the name of public health. Despite the mainstream media's persuasion tactics and consent production about the need to be vaccinated, an average of 9% of the population over the age of 18 has never been vaccinated against Covid-19. The main purpose of this study is to determine who the mass of people who are not vaccinated against Covid-19 consists of, despite intense media propaganda and consent production, to reveal what kind of resistance this mass displays against the media, their reasons for not being vaccinated, and their basic personal and ideological motivations for not being vaccinated. In addition, it is to determine what differences there are between the information sources of this audience in terms of mainstream media and new media. In this context, the demographic and ideological characteristics of the population who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19, their motivations for not being vaccinated, their perspectives on official institutions, mainstream media and new media are among the subjects examined in the research. For this purpose, an online survey was conducted with the Snowball Method, adhering to the Random Sampling technique, with a total of 2038 people representing the population who have never been vaccinated throughout Türkiye, adhering to the Quantitative research technique.