Alternative Media in Contemporary Turkey: Sustainability, Activism, and Resistance

212 Pages·2018·3.26 MB·English

by  Murat Akser, Victoria McCollum (eds.)

Alternative Media in
Contemporary Turkey

Alternative Media in
Contemporary Turkey
Sustainability, Activism, and Resistance
Edited by Murat Akser and Victoria McCollum
London•NewYork
PublishedbyRowman&LittlefieldInternational,Ltd.
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Selectionandeditorialmatter©2019byMuratAkserandVictoriaMcCollum
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AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
ISBN:HB978-1-78661-063-8
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Akser,Murat,editor.|McCollum,Victoria,editor.
Title:AlternativemediaincontemporaryTurkey:sustainability,activism,andresistance/editedby
MuratAkserandVictoriaMcCollum.
Description:London;NewYork:Rowman&LittlefieldInternationalLtd,[2019]|Includesbiblio-
graphicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2018034138(print)|LCCN2018048444(ebook)|ISBN9781786610645(elec-
tronic)|ISBN9781786610638(cloth:alk.paper)
Subjects:LCSH:Alternativemassmedia—Politicalaspects—Turkey.|Socialmedia—Politicalas-
pects—Turkey.|Communicationinsocialaction—Turkey.|Communicationinpolitics—Tur-
key.
Classification:LCCP96.A442(ebook)|LCCP96.A442.T93142019(print)|DDC302.2309561—
dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2018034138
TMThepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirementsofAmerican
NationalStandardforInformationSciencesPermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibrary
Materials,ANSI/NISOZ39.48-1992.
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction:AlternativeMediainContemporaryTurkey:
Sustainability,Activism,andResistance 1
MuratAkserandVictoriaMcCollum
PartI:Sustainability 13
1 TheDivergingTrajectoriesofAlternative/CitizenMediain
Turkey:AComparativeAnalysisofÇapulTVand140journos 15
HalukMertBal,ErginBulut,andLemiBaruh
2 TheActivistDimensionoftheAlternativeMediaand
Sustainability:TheCaseofMedyascope.tv 39
LauraAvadar
3 PoliticsofNewsReceptionandCirculationinTurkishNews
Culture 61
SuncemKoçer
PartII:Activism 75
4 CitizenJournalismbeforeandaftertheGeziParkProtest:Power
andAgencyintheMediaSphere 77
DésiréeHostettler
5 CitizenJournalismthroughAffectiveStatementsonTwitter 101
BurcumKesen
6 PrecarizationandInsecurityinTurkeyaftertheCoupAttempt:
EraofDenizensinTurkey’sNewMediaOrder 113
SarphanUzunoğlu
v
vi Contents
PartIII:Resistance 121
7 SocialMovementMediaandAffectiveField:Constructionof
ActivistSubjectivityasa“Spirit”ofAction 123
AlptugÖkten
8 CommunicationasPoliticalAction:GeziParkandOnline
ContentProducers 137
EylemYanardağoğlu
9 ResistingthroughImages:VideoActivismintheGeziPark
Movement 155
GülümŞenerandPerrinÖğünEmre
10 ContemporaryFeministMediainTurkey:AStudyofOnline
FeministPlatformÇatlakZemin(CrackedGround) 177
HanifeAliefendioğlu
Index 197
AbouttheContributors 199
Acknowledgments
The genesisof thisbookowes alot to aJune 2016socialmediaandpolitics
symposium presented by Ulster University’s Arts and Humanities Research
cluster. The successive research directors Frank Lyons, Thomas Maguire,
and Brian Bridges at Ulster University supported this symposium. Professor
Jan Jedrzejewski, our dean at Faculty of Arts then, and Professor Paul
Moore, head of the School of Creative Arts and Technologies, were great
sourcesofsupportandinspiration.Throughthissymposium,wewereableto
address some of the key issues related to the uses of social media during
social protest movements, such as Occupy, Tahrir, Euromaidan, and Gezi
Park.During thesymposium, theparticipants sharedtheirperspectives from
countries as diverse as Russia, China, Ireland, and Morocco. We have
learnedagreatdealofcomparativemethodologyfromdistinguishedscholars
like Fatima El-Issawi, Anastasia Denisova, Sally Chen, Lina Dencik, Joss
Hands,DanielTrottier,PaulReilly,andJakobSvensson.Unfortunately,time
constraints and participants’ commitments to other journal publications pre-
vented a timely publication of a collected volume back then. Hence the
offshoot of such an idea—a book on Turkish alternative media—was born
out of the ashes of the former project. I would like to thank the invited
participants in this volume for their speediness in addressing editing and
proofreading needs. Some articles that address other areas of social media
activism had to be excluded from the present volume. These are also giving
waytoanewproject:VideoActivisminTurkey(thetitleofournewbook).
In this journey, I thank my editing partner Victoria McCollum from Ul-
sterUniversity.Shewasabletoreadthewholetextandcorrecteverylineof
it to make it more reader friendly as a final book. I am looking forward to
future collaborations with her. I would also like to thank our two blind
referees and our reviewers Isabel David, Robert Porter, Ayca Alemdaroglu,
vii
viii Acknowledgments
andBanuAkdenizli.TheeditorsatRowman&Littlefield—DharaSnowden,
RebeccaAnastasi,andPatriciaStevenson—whomadeourliveseasydeserve
ahugecreditforraisingthisbookofhighestacademiccaliber.