Abstract
In this chapter, the aim is to consider the impact of technological and economic convergence in the media system in 2010s. The Internet emerged as a new area of limitation and censorship, which intensified during the 2007–2011 period that corresponded to Justice and Development Party’s second term in power (Yesṃil et al., 2017). Since 2011, there have already been major civil protests such as ‘Do Not Touch my Internet’ taking place in various parts of Turkey, and internet users had already begun to rely on online alternative media for news provision. During the Gezi protests, social media held a crucial role in news-making and news-gathering, as ‘regular’ citizens turned into citizen journalists (İnceoğlu and Çoban, 2014). In this chapter, the focus is on the emergence of citizen journalism networks, new content producers that blur the line between news and video-activism/documentary forms. The chapter mainly draws on data that were gathered through two different independent research projects conducted by the author between 2014 and 2015 in Istanbul.
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Notes
- 1.
140 Journos changed its format from citizen journalism in 2016 to new media publishing/broadcasting that blends journalism with creative industries. (140 Journos, 19 January 2020) See: https://140journos.com/140journos-8-yaşında-14fbb6167c06.
- 2.
An online dictionary that relies on users to offer definitions for events, concepts and situations.
- 3.
Prime Minister Erdoğan called the protestors Çapulcu (looter, pronounced chapulljou) during the protests, and the name was embraced by them.
- 4.
- 5.
The meetings that led to the launch of the network were followed, together with the test coverage of events such as 1 May protests, the Soma coal mine accident and the Gezi anniversary live coverage on 31 May 2014, as well as their summer training in İzmir.
- 6.
- 7.
The verb entered the linguistic literature as chapulling, translated by Wikipedia as ‘to fight for one’s rights’. https://www.aksam.com.tr/yasam/chapulling-literature-girdi/haber-212986
- 8.
Personal communication with participants in the Dokuz8 network in summer training in İzmir, August 2014, and personal observations during the Gezi protests.
- 9.
This project was conducted independently in collaboration with Dr Dan Mercea, Dr Marco Bastos and Dr Duygu Karataş. The qualitative interviews conducted in Turkey were partly supported by the Kadir Has University Personal Research Grant Award in 2015. Initial findings were presented in conferences such as Social Media, Activism and Organisations, held on 6 November 2015 at Goldsmiths College, London, UK. Owing to the collaborative nature of the project, each of the researchers had different research interests. See one of the collaborator’s work on the persistence of activist communication (Mercea et al., 2017).
- 10.
A sit-in protest that began on 27 May 1995 following the disappearance of Hasan Ocak, who was arrested during the events known as Gazi Mahallesi Olayları. Gazi Mahallesi is a neighbourhood in Istanbul where Alevis make up the majority of the population. During this event, a coffee shop was raided and 22 people were killed. The Saturday mothers have become a solidarity movement of families whose relatives went missing during the 1980s and 1990s. To date, the families of missing people meet every Saturday at Galatasaray Square in Istanbul. See: https://t24.com.tr/haber/cumartesi-annelerinin-eylemi-ne-zaman-ve-nasil-basladi,685205. (T24, 2018).
- 11.
The Union of Journalists announced that since the beginning of the Gezi protests, 22 journalists had been laid off, 14 had been given compulsory leave and 37 had been forced to resign. (T24, 22 July 2013). See: http://t24.com.tr/haber/gezi-direnisinde-kac-gazeteci-kovuldu,234,872.
- 12.
Personal communication with participants from Dokuz8haber network during ethnographic research.
- 13.
DIY citizenship considers that citizenship is a choice, an option one can choose to engage in or not. For those who do decide to engage, DIY citizenship entails the freedom and opportunity to find their own style of engagement (Kligler-Vilenchik, 2017).
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Yanardağoğlu, E. (2021). New Media and Politics of Communicative Citizenship. In: The Transformation of the Media System in Turkey . Global Transformations in Media and Communication Research - A Palgrave and IAMCR Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83102-8_5
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