Modern Media in Turkey and Research of Media’s Problems

Modern Media in Turkey and Research of Media’s Problems

“Media is a important concept which make information and works on to spread out the news to it’s community. This concept covers radio, television, visual and audio tools as well as newspapers, science magazine, and the others tools for media too. Nevertheless, it covers electronic media tools that  presented to people end of the 20.th century” (www.cgd.org.tr 26^th December 2011)

“Media communication tools has a power to effect the people’s feelings, decisions and their believes. This power sometimes gets change people’s attitude and behavior and can be a model for them. The changing with media can be posivitive and negative either” (www.tgc.org.tr 26^th December 2011)

Moreover It can show differences community to community or  in the same community in different times. The Media can be said that has two faces for community. An example for these; Media can be a qualitative power which is useful for its community and culture, It can also turn gun which is malevolent for it’s community , not care of people’ decision, damage the people’ brain with it’s idea. “Technical differences also can be seen with  “ Media Revolution”  exactly in 90’s year in Turkey. Several international, national and local qualification television channels started  their broadcasting life.”( ilef.ankara.edu.tr 26 th December 2011) There are also some problems can be seen after date. At the same time , Over a thousand radio station was added that broadcasted national and international scale. Nevertheless the developed technologies using spread out and than It gave a chance to reach to much audience number for media. If we think, it could reach with power of the media and the result of this ,if it takes into account of real direct relationship between the amount of numerical of individuals who it could effect , It is seen obviously that , fast innovations which is seen in the field of mass communication technology , is seen obviously ,it added power the power to Turkish media's power.

Basic Problems of Media in Turkey

 There are three basic problems in Turkey according to Journalists Union and Journalists Association.

        Monopolization- Anti Unionism- Corruption in Media

“It can be introduced as danger to became a trend in last years for Turkish Media. Monopolization, is not an issue related for media and media crew. As directly or indirectly , It has quality which is very important to  effect the whole community and  can constitute social or political matters. A kind of serious monopolization threat the freedom of press and Media workers” (http://www.tegim.com/egitim/dosyalar/a-d-bolumler/basin/2013-turkiyede-medyanin-sorunlari-ve-cozum-onerileri.html 27th December 2011)

It is not just about threatening  or it’s quality. Freedom of Press, Freedom of Communication, Freedom of Received News, Freedom of Expression can be introduced as justice and independent of  media which take a part in basic democracy. Thus If freedom of press was under the threat or got remove means is “ Democracy system can not fixed” . As Nail Güreli ’s said “ General meaning of freedom of press is an topic which is more important than media workers personal rights and their independent. Because Freedom of Press secures people by giving them right to receive news from community and learn to reality”. (Nebiler, 1995:  pg;22)

Monopolization in the media is not just about threatening the freedom of press, freedom of the democratic system and to learn the facts. All of them, as well as individual freedoms, and in connection with the Media elite, media professional ethics also suffers in the situation. Media working ethic is gradually weakening and the principles of professional press does not listen, so that requirements of the profession also has been encountered among the media elite frequently.

When the view of presidents of media company about monopolization was examined , all of them accepted the threat of monopolization for media future. “They listed  the 5 problems of media and media workers such as;

* Ethic decay and media workers moral over

* Freedom of media workers or problem of elite independent.

* Problem of media quality.

* Relationship among media and politica.

               

* Safety problem of media workers.” (GÖNENÇ, Ö.frw from; http://www.istanbul.edu.tr/iletisim/?page=template-dergi/detail&int_Id=4 27^th December 2011)

        According to Media workers “The problems of Media”

The basic problems of Media in Turkey for workers	%
Political ineffectiveness	3
Legal arrangements problems	3
Occupationally ethic problems	27
Democracy in Company	4
Safety Problems for Workers	7
Freedom, Elite Independent	20
Education Inadequacy for workers – Economical matters	3
Freedom and Economical Matters	3
Promotion- Quality problem of Media	20
Relationship among Media and Politica	10

Table -1

        As it has seen, the main problems in the media has been expressed  by media workers. Inn addition , %70 of written media was managing and controlling by BİMAŞ (which has been created by two big media company in Turkey) company. It is definitely a clue about monopolization in 90’s Turkish Media.

        As a result of monopolies emerge as the most important issue in Turkish media sector as in many countries around the world. “In this case, the organizational structure of media institutions should be mentioned briefly; Among the organizational structure of media institutions and media products have shown a very closer relationship in old research. So that These organization structures often exhibit a hierarchical situation between power and control. Power and control concentrated at the top especially in hierarchical structure.” (KARAHİSARs, Tuba. Essay, frw from; http://www.dorduncukuvvetmedya.com/4120-basin-sektoru.html  27th December 2011) On the other hand , Many researchers who study the media supported that some media company managed by forces out of companies.

        The second  problem is about “Syndicating”. “The syndicating, established a relationship regularly with the media  and has been obliged  to labor issues and seeks to provide support. ” (http://www.sendikaliol.org/neden_sendika.html, 27th December 2011)

“The union and political party are in a relationship to institutions and organizations. Amendments to the law for workers’ right and interests or for the benefit of the employees strive to remove the new laws. The Union has been obliged to labor issues in the international area. Workers and workers’ organizations of other countries will exchange experiences. So that It works to develop common solutions to common problems and provides international solidarity”(ADAKLI G; frw from; http://www.sendika.org/yazi.php?yazi_no=2507 27^th December 2011) . After these descriptions, Power of Syndicate’s power can be understood. An example for syndicating is , when a workers who works for media join the Union. They can have rights for sanction  to their company. It can be a point of media companies not to want these kind of activities because of the companies always send away their workers easily.  It’s  means briefly is “ a kind of assurance for workers”.

            The last problem that  we counted  is corruption in media. It became a problem after Turkish media had variety of companies area. The companies who has media department in their company, do several business  out of press department. So that they have ceased to be  the classic media company. They became companies where work as each jobs and each area.

Owners of media organizations have ceased to be media elites and they became business elites of the world’s leading economy. In the classic words, They have grown in to a holding . Thus Everything about media condensed to advertising their products.      

CONCLUSION

        If all of these problems and situation of media summarize briefly, Media has became a major social force with the rapid developments in the field of mass communication. This determination also applies to Turkish society nowadays. Turkish media also has became fourth power by a result of developments occurring in the last decade. Moreover It started to describe as a strong partner by Politician Elite.

        On the other hand, This striking power brought the serious problems into the media such as monopolization, union-busting ( anti-syndicating ) threats to the independence of the elite, deviations from media professional ethics, promotional problems, problems of product quality …etc. This kind of problems are not just for workers. It  also effects  to whole community and democratic systems. The record shows that the media are important for democratic societies, in some cases it has also became an element to turn into a serious threat to democratic life.

                              

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• ADAKLI, Gülseren. (2005, Turkish Media and Objectivity Problems, Forward from; sendika.org)
• cgd.org.tr (Contemporary Journalists Association)
• GÖNENÇ, Özgür. (İstanbul Üniversitesi İletişim Fakültesi Dergisi - Sayı 24 frw; istanbul.edu.tr)
• http://ilef.ankara.edu.tr/ (Media and Ethic )
• KARAHİSAR, Tuba. (2011, frw; dorduncukuvvetmedya .com)
• NEBİLER, Halil. (1995, Medyanın Ekonomi Politiği, Istanbul)
• sendikaliol.org  (Syndicating)
• tegim.com ( Problems of Media)

tgc.org.tr  (Turkish Journalists 

Journalists Death in Turkey and Hrant Dink Assassination

MARIBOR, 2012

Journalists Death in Turkey and Hrant Dink Assassination

Journalists death in Turkey started with Hasan Fehmi’s did. He was an author for working as “Serbesti News” who writes something against to Concord and Development Association. He were  killed in 6 April 1909 on  Galata Bridge. From this event , Journalists death can not be stopped till now.

While 83 Journalists were killed in 100 years, over half of death existed in last 30 years. It is seen the first time , 47 journalists has been killed since 1990. Although No of them could not been explained by government or somewhere else.

When we examine the journalists death with assassination. The Journalists say that “ Journalists who were killed with assassination is one of the shame for Turkey Community. Turkey is a democratic country. These kind of deaths can not be accepted by us.” They also say that “ Journalists is always killed for nothing. Why government could not find the assassin in these geography ” It shows that democracy and intelligence develop slowly.

When we look out the years between 90-94’s,33 journalists were killed .Majority of journalists were from Kurdish community and majority of them were killed in are where the people are Kurdish. Racism was not stopped. During the Armenian Genocide, 10 foreign journalists and author were killed in 1915.This event was also the example of racism.

Why were Journalists killed in Turkey?

As it seen 83 journalists were killed in 100years. There are 11 foreign journalists (majority of them were Armenian)(İf we count the Kurdish as Turkish citizenship) were killed in 83 journalists.10 of them were killed in 1915 because of the Armenian genocide. When it is realized 8 of them were killed 24.04.2015. This date was  the Armenian genocide, Armenian Journalists were taken to Ayaş and kept in prison on 24 April and later taken under military escort to Diyarbakır to appear before a court martial there and was murdered by Cherkes Ahmet.

There were also some reasons about the journalists assassination. Some of them were;

1- Some of interior and foreign power want to create anarchic situation in Turkey. They always do it to prepare an atmosphere for bash. (11 journalists)

2- Racism results; The majority of them were killing about it. (This is also the popular one in Turkey) (42 journalists)

3- The journalists are killed who write about the defraudation. (9 journalists)

4- The journalists are killed who write against write to government.(19 journalists)

5- There are also some journalists who were killed by police. ( 2 journalists)

An example speech of journalist for assassination. The journalists Hıfzı Topuz said that “ We need to share all information with interior and foreign associations to save the journalists life”

1-İnterior and Foreign Power: Press, a kind of  basic elements of democratic regime like the 4.th power. It functions like the mediator among the manager and the one being managing, Although the newspapers do not have enough circulations in Turkey, they are effective on country’s current matter  because of  their creating strong power of community and reaching great masses.

The last issues changing very often in Turkey. There is an issue which changes directly related to the publication policies of the press foundaditions. Even though  the events taking a place  due to  the social  dynamism has been regarded as the main factor, the essential  factor in lasts issue changes is the publication policies of the press foundations.

We need to examine on this question; Does the press and journalists , which is got stuck between these complicated structures and activities however it named as the 4th power, have a directing effect on foreign policies as well as the one it has on internal affairs?

The writings which are written by journalists ,reflected to international relationship in turkey ,where changes everyday and meets a new innovation and effected the other countries quickly.

The writings ,not only shaped generally, as a objective 'right decision' in foreign policy as well ,more than according to interests. This appears an argument between Turkey and the other countries because of the writings. And causes some pressures on journalists by foreign powers .So they continuous to write the writings with journalists some unsolved murders are appeared.

            On the other hand ,foreign powers use journalists wrongly, causes some anarchist situation and they generally think to spoil the country. They use pressure to journalists and with writings which are written .As a conclusion ,it is finale with by the murder of general public or a strong government.

2- Racism Results;  As it knows that lots of Journalists were killed by someone to support  their  nationality with  their writing  each year in Turkey.

·                            “Turkish nationalism is a political ideology that promotes and glorifies the Turkish people, as either national, ethnic or linguistic group and puts the interests of the state over other influences, including religious ones.”

·                            “Nationalism is also known as  a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms”

§  We can see the Turkish nationalism in 7 ways such as ; “Pan-Turkism, Turanism, Turkifcation, Nationalist Movement Party, Grey Wolves, Great Union Party and Ülkücülük”

In fact , Issue of Journalists death  are mostly related to  Racism in Turkey. When the deaths are checked , Kurdish and Armenian Journalists were killing every year. 42 Armenian and Kurdish journalists were killed in the history of journalism in turkey.( The Journalists who were also known by whole community). We firstly need to explain the reason of death in racism before we draw a table.

To Support Armenian Genocide

“The Armenian Genocide also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime was the systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was implemented through wholesale massacres and deportations, with the deportations consisting of forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees. The total number of resulting Armenian deaths is generally held to have been between 1 million and 1.5 million. Other ethnic groups were similarly attacked by the Ottoman Empire during this period, including Assyrians and Greeks, and some scholars consider those events to be part of the same policy of extermination”

To Support “PKK” Terror Organization

“The Kurdistan Workers' Party  commonly known as PKK, and formerly known as KADEK (Freedom and Democracy Congress of Kurdistan), is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights for the Kurds in Turkey The group was founded on 27 November 1978 and was led by Abdullah Öcalan. The PKK's ideology was originally a fusion of revolutionary socialism and Kurdish nationalism although since his imprisonment, Ocalan has abandoned orthodox Marxism.The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization internationally by a number of states and organizations, including the United States and the European Union. Turkey labeled the organization as an ethnic secessionist organization that uses terrorism and the threat of force against both civilian and military targets for the purpose of achieving its political goal.”

Number Of Journalists Who Were Killed	Year	Nationality	Reason
8	1915	Armenian	Turkish and Kurdish people were killed by Armenian in Eastern part of Turkey, in the first world war
18	1992-1998 (Generally of them unknown by community)	Kurdish	Supported to PKK( terror organization)
1	2007	Armenian	Supported to Armenian Genocide and his ideas about it.
1	2008	Kurdish	Supported to PKK( terror organization)
24	1908-2011	Armenian-Kurdish etc…	Different Reason about their ideas.

 (Table 1)

The table shows us how and why were they killed. As it is seen Armenian were killed to  supported Armenian genocide and their citizenship’s did in 1915.Kurdish were killed to supported PKK terror organization.

3- Defraudation; 9  journalists are killed who write about the defraudation 50’s years to 90’s in Turkey. This situation can be explained with financial differences and quality of government these years. The best important point here is Journalists wrote about the  revelation of government defraudation. Thus they were killed by deep state.

4- Against Writing to Government; Against writing can be related to defraudation too. It generally covered this term with the other ideas. It arises  usually from political speech. So that 19 Journalists were killed till now.

5- Police;  We can just see 2 journalists who were killed by police. It can said that the matter  is unusual .  It arises by police’s “uncontrolled power”

Hrant Dink Assassination in 2007

We saw that 83 Journalists were killed 1909 to 2008 in Turkey. When we think about the first time , they were totally about Racists and Politics. It is looked the popular journalist who were killed the first view. Hrant Dink can be seen in this category.

Hrant Dink  was a  journalist who worked in Turkey. He was originally from Armenia. He was the 82.Journalist who have been killed with assassination. It arises his opinion about Armenian Genocide and his supporting this issue on international area.

 Hrant Dink also was one of the founders of Agos  weekly, the only newspaper in Turkey published in Armenian  and Turkish, and served as the editor-in-chief of Agos from its founding in 1996 until his death in 2007. 

Hrant Dink was assassinated in Istanbul  in 2007, as he returned to the offices of Agos. The killer was reported to have introduced himself as an Ankara University student who wanted to meet with Mr. Dink. When his request was rejected, he waited in front of a nearby bank for a while. According to eyewitnesses, Dink was shot by a man of 25–30 years of age, who fired three shots at Dink's head from the back at point blank range before fleeing the scene on foot. According to the police, the assassin was a man of 18–19 years of age. Two men had been taken into custody in the first hours of the police investigation, but were later released. Another witness, the owner of a restaurant near the Agos office, said the assassin looked about 20, wore jeans and a cap and shouted "I shot the infidel" as he left the scene.

Death of Hrant Dink as a sign of his opinion about Armenian genocide. Armenian genocide was almost before 100 years ago. Ottoman Empire killed some Armenian citizenship in Turkey because of the first world war. Moreover  his view was totally against to Turkish communities

Back to the Motherland:the film theatre in the postmedia age : FRANCESCO CASETTI

Casetti’s article were talking about a film example in 6.pages, the other pages about the re-relocation. Before the talk about the film example, we need to examine something about “the film theatre in the post-media and postmodernist age.”Postmodernist films or postmodernist media describe the articulation of ideas of postmodernism through the cinematic medium.Postmodernist film upgets the mainstream conventions of narrative structure and characterization and destroy the audience’s suspension of disbelief to create a work in which a less-recognizable internal logic forms the film’s means of expression.

        Actually, in Atom Egoyan film include some female audience. They are , Nana and Anna. There are of coursly some spectators called Nicole and someone else. There is a good  point to explain to confusion .First of all , Nana watches “La passion de Jeanne d’Arc “ a clip from Vivre sa Vie. Anna watches the films however the difference is , Anna’s friend Nicola sends the clip to Anna’s phone. There are also some differences between Anna and Nana. One of them just aware the film but Anna’s discuss and aware all things in the same time. Nana dives in to the world represented on screen with catharsis experience. However Anna keeps the film and reacts something. In briefly It shows us some differences between thinking the film. Explaining is difficult as story is seen ,

        On the other hand , we are discovering two different ideas in following films and cinemas. It shows us some personal prefer such as human behaviors, personality , interests and hobbies etc..

       

        In other words, The spectators tell us that the filmic experience has chanced profoundly since 1960’s.It was totally about the post media ages. When new types of cinema , films theatre. Everyone thinks the new views. The best example for that is  ;  when you watched something in 90’s years, It doesn’t exist like nowadays.

        Moreover, If the spectators once modeled themselves on films, spectators know model films or remodel them on to themselves. The effect is that the spectators became the active protagonists of game .These sentences is the fact of cassetti’s article. Here the point is , When the spectators think like director, they become a hero in this film with their feelings.

        There are also some sense of human such as hearing, touching, thinking and emotional doing. Hearing is, to see a film is to enter into a sonorous environment. Touching is , to watch a film from a DVD player or computer one  with one’s own hand. As It is  said , More than understanding a film, spectators find themselves either exploring the source of that which they find in front of them in order to best orient themselves. The thinking  is also the important way to understand something about the films or cinemas. After someone watched the film, A man or Woman think that the film is good for their sense or not. The last thing about the sense is Emotional doing. It is actually is the same with thinking. When someone watched the film, It effects her or his feelings immediately. This is fact that ; films have always touched their spectators.

        However  the performance of films or human’s feelings definitely effect the new level of doing. According to Casetti’s example “ There is a technological doing, where access to the film is not direct but mediated by a device which the spectator must activate ( such is the case with VHS,DVD or home theatre) or by a device through which the spectator chooses what to watch and how to watch it (video on demand , MySky, and so on)” It briefly means is , watching something in the different device effect the spectators view in the first way. There is also an effect type in this example. That is a relevant relational doing which comes in to play especially outside the film theatre. When someone watched the film with some group , It motivated to construct them to share their own experiences.

        We can also see an example from Artaud Double Bill, It tells us that there are two modern-day spectators. First one is people who despite their apparently anomalous behavior , the other one is people who are watching films in film theatres. This is effected by technological  device.  We can give an explanation on mobile phone example for this. When the someone take a part in the theatre , He or she must turn off his or her phone not to disturb to other ones. “Consequently , watching a film becomes a performance even within the temple of attendance”

        We have some reasons to turn to motherland and for re-relocation. They can be explained with territoriality, domestication, instituation and experiences.

       

1-  Concerns a need for territoriality , Territoriality can be explained like place or some else to belong to somewhere. There are some important things to watch a film such as ; what to see, where to see, and what kind of films. Watching a films have asked something and It keeps on to ask as we count on top. According to Casetti , It can be counted as new modes and it offers the spectators an existential bubble in which to borrow. Here In the important point is the film better if belongs the same area with spectators.

2-  Highlights a need for domestication. Domestication is theory is an approach in science and technology studies and media studies that describes the processes by which innovations, especially new technology is 'tamed' or appropriated by its users.Breifly, the user and its environment change and adapt accordingly. The models of films change day to day. People tries to adapt theirselves to new modern world and relocation challenge is created to traditional modes which risk not to much for filmic version. Thus It drives to people held up as an example that anyone can follow the “recognition as identification”

3-  Thirdly The return to the Motherland highlights a need for institution. The topic is totally about technological device such as Internet, Radio and something else, With Internet and computer , Watching films became popular in new environment. Urban space gave us a chance to closer for vision with radios.

4-  The Return of the Motherland highlights a need for experience. It can be explained in four points. The most important of them is Migration drives new environments and devices presents with some risks. These risks are , Filmic experience joined into the media experience. It forces this experience onto mandatory experience which were effected by technologies and people habits. Films lost their uniqueness as part of re-relocation. The cinematic experience thus recovers a precise and personal sense.