Transformation of Journalistic Labor and Precarization: A Study on Freelance Reporters of Independent Digital News Outlets in Turkey

Year 2018, , 195 - 218, 15.12.2018

Sarphan Uzunoğlu

https://doi.org/10.17572/mj2018.2.195218

Cited By: 5

Abstract

The crisis, known as the Dotcom bubble in the world, is recently occuring in Turkey’s new digital newsrooms. Due to uncertainty in news economy and recent developments in Turkey’s media industry, dozens of digital newsrooms have emerged in the last decade. Some of these are profit-oriented organizations, while some are non-profit or have some hybrid economic models. These new digital newsrooms live off traditional incomes, such as advertisement revenue, as well as grants and donations. Many journalists who used to work in the past for digital or traditional newsrooms as full-time or part-time news practitioners are currently producing news content as freelance journalists for the new digital newsrooms. This caused the emergence of a new community consisting of freelance reporters working for these new-born digital news organizations. This study aims to analyze the impact of digitalization on precariousness focused on working conditions of journalists producing content for these newsrooms. The study is based on in-depth interviews with freelance journalists working for digital newsrooms, participatory observation of the researcher in activities of Journalists Union of Turkey in 2016-2017 period; and a survey answered by freelance journalists working for digital newsrooms.

Keywords

journalism, labour, new media, digitalization, precarity

Gazeteci Emeğinin Dönüşümü ve Güvencesizleşme: Türkiyeli Dijital Haber Odalarının Serbest Muhabirleri Üzerine Bir Çalışma

Abstract

Dünyada dotcom balonu olarak bilinen krizin bir benzeri bugün Türkiye’de dijital haber odaları bağlamında meydana gelmektedir. Haber ekonomisi alanında yaşanan belirsizlik ve Türkiye’de medya endüstrisinde gerçekleşen dönüşüm sonucu çok sayıda dijital haber odası ortaya çıkmıştır. Bunların bazıları kâr odaklı, bazıları ise sivil toplum destekli ve kâr amacı taşımayan organizasyonlardır. Kimi haber odaları ise melez finansal modellere sahiptir ve hem reklam gibi geleneksel modellerden hem de hibelerden beslenmektedir. Bu yeni dijital haber odaları, geçmişte dijital ya da geleneksel haber odaları için tam ya da yarı zamanlı olarak içerik üretmiş birçok gazeteciye serbest çalışan olarak içerik ürettirmektedir. Bu da, Türkiye’de dijital çıkışlı haber odaları için haber üreten serbest çalışan bir muhabir komünitesi ortaya çıkarmıştır. Bu çalışma, Türkiyeli dijital haber platformları için içerik üreten muhabirlerin çalışma koşullarını dijitalleşmenin güvencesizliğe etkisi bağlamında ele almaktadır. Çalışma, dijital haber odaları için haber üreten serbest çalışan muhabirlerle yapılan derinlemesine mülakatları, araştırmacının 2016-2017 yıllarında Türkiye Gazeteciler Sendikası faaliyetlerine katıldığında edindiği gözlemleri ve dijital haber odaları için serbest çalışan muhabirlerce yanıtlanan anketi esas almaktadır.

Keywords

gazetecilik, emek, yeni medya, dijitalleşme, güvencesizlik, yeni medya

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