Social Media in the Popular Turkish Newspapers

Year 2023, Volume: 26(2) Issue: 52, 210 - 232, 14.09.2023

Mine Gencel Bek

https://doi.org/10.18691/kulturveiletisim.1271661

Abstract

This article focuses on how social media is represented in newspapers by analyzing two popular Turkish newspapers in the last decade, from 2013 to 2021. The news was examined with qualitative content analysis supported by MAXQDA software which is used to generate codings from the text while reading each news item. The article first reviews the literature on social media and the news. Afterward, the findings of the textual analysis are shared with diagrams and in an organized way around the themes. Some chosen examples are discussed with a special focus on the visuals and the headlines which are translated. The article reveals that social media, starting as the mobilizing force during the Gezi protests, over the years, gained new meanings in the news. In conclusion, it is suggested to categorize the following represented themes from 2013 to 2021 under the two frames as negative and positive. While the first includes the themes of disinformation and harm, crime, and access problems, the positive frame consists of the themes of new apps, services and technology, publicity, and using social media campaigns for good causes.
The article argues how the newspapers, with the content of the news as these themes and with the form of the news with short, superficial, and under-investigated reporting as shown in the examples, in accordance with the context, amplify primarily authoritarianism and commercialism and ends with the suggestions.

Keywords

Social media, the news, journalism, Turkey

Supporting Institution

DFG

Project Number

Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)—SFB 1472 “Transformations of the Popular”

Thanks

I would like to thank to my colleague Luca Hammer for supporting me to access the news.

Türkiye'de Popüler Gazetelerde Sosyal Medya

Abstract

Bu makale, iki popüler gazetenin analizi aracılığıyla, 2013-2021 yılları arasında sosyal medyanın gazetelerde nasıl temsil edildiği meselesine odaklanmaktadır. Araştırma örneklemindeki haberler, her bir haber okunurken kodlar geliştirmek için kullanılan MAXQDA yazılımı tarafından desteklenen nitel içerik analizi ile incelenmiştir. Makalede öncelikle sosyal medya ve haber ilişkisine dair literatür gözden geçirilmektedir. Daha sonra, metin analizinin bulguları, temalar ekseninde organize edilerek diyagramlarla aktarılmaktadır. Seçilen bazı örnekler, kullanılan görseller ve tercüme edilen manşetlere özellikle odaklanılarak tartışılmaktadır. Makale, Gezi protestolarında önemli bir harekete geçirici güç olan sosyal medyanın zaman içinde haberlerde kazandığı yeni anlamları ortaya koymaktadır. Sonuç olarak, 2013-2021 yılları arasında yayınlanan haberlerde temsil edilen temaların “olumsuz” ve “olumlu” olarak iki çerçeveye ayrılarak kategorize edilebilecekleri önerilmektedir. Buna göre, olumsuz çerçeve içinde sosyal medya dezenformasyon, zarar, suç, erişim problemleri temaları ile haberlerde yer alırken, olumlu çerçevede yeni uygulamalar, hizmetler, teknoloji, tanıtım ve iyi amaçlar için sosyal medyayı kampanyalarda kullanma temaları bulunmaktadır.
Makalede, gazetelerin bu temalar ekseninde içerik olarak ve kısa, yüzeysel, fazla araştırmaya dayanmayan haber tarzıyla biçimsel olarak, bağlamla uyumlu biçimde, öncelikle otoriterliği ve ticarileşmeyi nasıl güçlendirdiğini tartışmakta ve önerilerle sona ermektedir.

Keywords

Sosyal medya, haberler, gazetecilik, Türkiye

Project Number

Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)—SFB 1472 “Transformations of the Popular”

References

• Allan, Stuart (2006). Online News. Berkshire and New York: Open University Press.
• Anderson, Christopher W. (2012). "Towards a sociology of computational and Algorithmic Journalism." New Media & Society, 1: 1-17.
• Bardoel, Jo (1996). “Beyond Journalism: A Profession between Information Society and Civil Society.” European Journal of Communication , 11 (3): 283-302.
• Bossio, Diana (2017). Journalism and Social Media. Practititoners, Organizations and Institutions. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Broersma, Marcel and Scott A. Eldridge II. (2019). “Journalism and Social Media: Redistribution of Power?”. Media and Communication , 7 (1): 193-197.
• Chadwick, Andrew (2017). The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power. Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: August 2017 DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190696726.001.00
• Chao-Chen, Lin (2013). “Convergence of new and old media: new media representation in traditional news”. Chinese Journal of Communication, 6:2: 183-201, DOI: 10.1080/17544750.2013.785667
• Develotte, Christine, et al. (2021). Analysing Representations of Social Media in European News Media Discourse. New York: Taylor & Francis Group.
• Downie Leonard JR and Michael Schudson (2009). “The Reconstruction of American Journalism”. Columbia Journalism Review, 48 (4): 28-51.
• Flew, Terry (2018). Social media and the cultural and creative industries. In The SAGE handbook of social media. Jean Burgess, et al. (Eds.). London: SAGE Publications Ltd. 512-526.
• Fürsich, Elfriede. (2010). “Media and the representation of others.” International Social Science Journal. March. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2451.2010.01751.x
• Hall, Stuart. (1997). "The work of representation." In Representation. Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. Stuart Hall (ed.). London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage. 13-76.
• Heinrich, Ansgard (2011). Network Journalism. Journalistic Practice in Interactive Spheres. New York and Oxon: Routledge.
• Hermida, Alfred (2010). “From TV to Twitter: How ambient news became ambient journalism.” Media/Culture Journal, 13(2). https://doi.org/10.5204/mcj.220
• Hermida Alfred (2013). “#JOURNALISM.” Digital Journalism, 1(3): 295-313, DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2013.808456
• Hermida. Alfred (2016). “Twitter, Breaking the News, and the Hybridity in Journalism.” In The Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies. Bob Franklin and Scott A. Eldridge II (eds.). London: Routledge. 407-416.
• Karataş, Duygu and Mine Gencel Bek (2023). “Remembering Gezi: The Digital Memory Practices on Twitter During the Anniversaries in the Face of Populist Challenges”. International Journal of Communication, 17: 1–22.
• Kaul, Vineet (2013). “Journalism in the Age of Digital Technology”. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 3 (1): 125-143.
• Kidd, Jenny (2016). Representation. Oxon, New York: Routledge
• Lewis, Seth C. and Molyneux, Logan (2018). “A Decade of Research on Social Media and Journalism: Assumptions, Blind Spots, and a Way Forward.” Media and Communication, 6(4): 11-23.
• Mancini, Paolo (2013). “Media Fragmentation, Party System, and Democracy”. The International Journal of Press/ Politics, 18 (1): 43-60.
• Paulussen, Steve and Raymond A. Harder (2014). Social media references in Newspapers. Journalism Practice.
• Pavlik, John and Frank Bridges (2013). ”The Emergence of Augmented Reality (AR) as a Storytelling Medium in Journalism.” Journalism & Communication Monographs, 15(1): 4-59.
• Ryfe, David M. (2012). Can Journalism Survive? An Inside Look at American Newsroom. Cambridge and Malden: Polity Press.
• Sambrook, Richard (2005). “Citizen Journalism and the BBC”. Nieman Reports, 59 (4): 13-16.
• Sorensen, Lone. (2021). Populist Communication. Ideology, Performance, Mediation. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Webb, Jen, (2009). Understanding Representation. LA, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC: SAGE
• Yılmaz, Zafer (2018). Yeni Türkiye’nin Ruhu. Hınç, Tahakküm, Muhtaçlaştırma. İstanbul: İletişim.