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

Year 2018, Volume: 5 Issue: 2 - Creative Industries and Creative Labor, 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

References

• Adkins, C. L., J. D. Werbel, ve Jiing-Lih, F. (2001). A field study of job insecurity during a financial crisis. Group & Organization Management, 26(4), 463-483.
• Agafonoff, N. (2006). Adapting Ethnographic Research Methods to Ad Hoc Commercial Market Research. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 9(2), 115-125.
• Alpman, S. P. (2015). Enformelleşme, Kimlik, Prekarizasyon Emeğin Kürt Hali. Katkı. Sosyal Araştırmalar Vakfı, 6-23.
• Amin, S. (2013). The Implosion of Contemporary Capitalism. New York: Monthly Review Press.
• Appay, B. (2010). Precarization and flexibility in the labour process: A question of legitimacy and a major challenge for democracy. Globalization and Precarious Forms of Production and Employment: Challenges for Workers and Unions, 23.
• Bakker, P. (2012). Aggregation, content farms and Huffinization: The rise of low-pay and no-payjournalism.Journalism Practice, 6(5-6), 627-637.
• Becker, H. S., (1958), Problems of Inference and Proof in Participant Observation, American Sociology Review, 23(6), 652-660.
• Bourdieu, P. (1999) Acts of Resistance. Translated by Richard Nice. New York: The New Press.
• Brake, D. R. (2017). The Invisible Hand of the Unaccountable Algorithm: How Google, Facebook and Other Tech Companies Are Changing Journalism. In Digital Technology and Journalism (pp. 25-46). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
• Brophy, E. (2006). System error: Labour precarity and collective organizing at Microsoft. Canadian Journal of Communication, 31(3).
• Buğra, A. (2013). Siyasetin Geri Dönüşü. Express Dergisi, Sayı 137.
• Bunce, M., Wright, K., ve Scott, M. (2017). ‘Our newsroom in the cloud’: Slack, virtual newsrooms and journalistic practice. New media & Society, 20, 3381-3399.
• Chomsky, N. (2012). Occupy. Penguin.
• Çakır, H. (2007). Geleneksel gazetecilik karşısında internet gazeteciliği. Erciyes Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 1(22).
• Çığ, E. Ç. ve Çığ, Ü. (2015). Gazetecilik Emeğinin Prekarizasyonu: Yeni Medya Çağında Habercilik Etiğini Tartışmak. İş Ahlakı Dergisi, 8(2), 197.
• De Mateo, R., Bergés, L. ve Garnatxe, A. (2010). Crisis, what crisis? The media: business and journalism in times of crisis. TripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society, 8(2), 251-274.
• Elliott, J. (2005). Using narrative in social research: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Sage.
• Engels, F. (1997). İngiltere'de İşçi Sınıfının Durumu. (Y. Fincancı, Çev.). Ankara: Sol.
• Erdoğan, N. (2000). Gündelikçi Kadınlar, Emir Erleri ve Benzerlerine Dair. Aşağı Sınıflar, “Yüksek” Tahayyüller. Birikim, (132).
• Fuchs, C. (2015). Digital Labor. The Routledge Companion to Labor and Media, 51.
• Gajewska, K. (2014). Peer production and prosumerism as a model for the future organization of general interest services provision in developed countries: examples of food services collectives. World Future Review, 6(1), 29-39.
• Gandini, A. (2016). Digital work: Self-branding and social capital in the freelance knowledge economy. Marketing theory, 16(1), 123-141.
• Göker, N. (2018). Si̇nemada prekari̇zasyon: Fi̇lmlerde güvencesi̇zli̇ği̇n mi̇kro anlatilari. Journal of International Social Research, 11(55).
• Hinchman, L. P. & Hinchman, S. (1997). Memory, identity, community: The idea of narrative in the human sciences. Suny Press.
• Hooton, C. A. (2017). America’s online ‘jobs’: conceptualizations, measurements, and influencing factors. Business Economics, 52(4), 227-249.
• Hong, R. (2013). Game modding, prosumerism and neoliberal labor practices. International Journal of Communication, 7, 19.
• Hunter, A. (2015). Crowdfunding independent and freelance journalism: Negotiating journalistic norms of autonomy and objectivity. New Media & Society, 17(2), 272-288.
• Inui, A. (2005). Why freeter and NEET are misunderstood: recognizing the new precarious conditions of Japanese youth. Social Work & Society, 3(2), 244-251.
• Irak, D. (2015). Prekaryalaşan Orta Sınıf, Gezi ve Sosyal Medya. Barış Çoban ve Bora Ataman (Der.), Direniş Çağında Türkiye’de Alternatif Medya (s. 79-92). İstanbul: Kafka.
• Jonna, R. J. ve Foster, J. B. (2016). Marx’s theory of working-class precariousness–and its relevance today. Alternate Routes: A Journal of Critical Social Research, 27.
• Kalleberg, A. L. (2009). Precarious work, insecure workers: Employment relations in transition. American sociological review, 74(1), 1-22.
• Kaye, J. ve Quinn, S. (2010). Funding journalism in the digital age: Business models, strategies, issues and trends. Peter Lang.
• Kosugi, R. (2004). The transition from school to work in Japan: Understanding the increase in freeter and jobless youth. Labour, 4, 3-2.
• Kerr, R. B. (2005). Informal labor and social relations in northern Malawi: The theoretical challenges and implications of ganyu labor for food security. Rural sociology, 70(2), 167-187.
• Kergel, D. ve Heidkamp, B. (2017). Media Change—Precarity Within and Precarity Through the Internet. In Precarity within the Digital Age (pp. 9-27). Springer VS, Wiesbaden.
• Marx, K. (1976). Capital, vol. 1. London: Penguin.
• Marx, K. ve Engels, F. (2013). Komünist Manifesto. (C. Üster ve N. Deriş, Çev.). İstanbul: Can.
• McChesney, R. (1999). Rich Media, Poor Democracy. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
• Munck, R. (2013). The Precariat: a view from the South. Third World Quarterly, 34(5), 747-762.
• Oğuz, Ş. (2011). Tekel Direnişinin Işığında Güvencesiz Çalışma/Yaşama: Proletaryadan "Prekarya" ya mı? Mülkiye Dergisi, 35(271), 7-24.
• Örnebring, H. (2018). Journalists thinking about precarity: Making sense of the “new normal”. ISOJ, Vol 8 Number 1, 109.
• Oğuz, S. (2014). Bilişim ve Emek Süreci. LaborComm 2014, 49.
• Owen L. H. (2015). How 7 news organisations are using Slack to work better and differently. NeimanLab.
• Özinanır, C. (2013). Gezi Direnişi’nden Forumlara: Saatlerin Ayarını Bozan Politikanın Dönüşü. Mülkiye Dergisi, 37(3), 183-200.
• Purkis, S. (2008). Informal Labour Use in Tourism-Led Development: The Case of Marmaris. Ekonomik Yaklaşım, 19(69), 107-126.
• Quinlan, M. (2012). The ‘pre-invention’ of precarious employment: the changing world of work in context. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 23(4), 3-24.
• Sağiroğlu, S. (2013). From precarious employment to precarious life: The case of non-appointed teachers in Turkey. Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.
• Sarı, C. (2006). Formel ve Enformel Arasında: Ankara’da Atık Kâğıt Toplayıcılarının Deneyimine Eleştirel Bir Bakış, 126-137. Türkiye’yi Sınıf Gerçeğiyle Anlamak. TÜSAM.
• Standing, G. (2015). Prekarya: Yeni Tehlikeli Sınıf. (E. Bulut, Çev.). İstanbul: İletişim.
• Steen-Johnsen, K., Ihlebæk, K. Andrea ve Enjolras, B. (2016). News on new platforms: Norwegian journalists face the digital age. The Crisis of Journalism Reconsidered: Democratic Culture, Professional Codes, Digital Future, 190-209.
• Tonak, A. (2015). Prekarya mı, Proletarya mı? Sonuna Doğru. İstanbul: İmge.
• Uzunoğlu, S. (2015). Yeni Medyada Dijital Emek Sömürüsü: Tüketiciden Üreticiye Yeni Medya, Yeni Sömürü Pratikleri. E-Journal of Intermedia, 2015/2(1) 181-194.
• Wong, Y. M. S. (2018). Virtual sensemaking and self-presentation on Slack: Exploring the effects of Enterprise Social Network (ESN) on workplace culture and socialisation. University of Copnhagen MA Cognition and Communication Master’s thesis.