The Power Struggle Among Media Groups and its Effects on Journalism in Turkey

Abstract

The reason why the field of journalism is
mostly studied with an emphasis on its relationships
with political and economic domains in Turkey is that
it is in a relationship of mutual dependence with these
domains. Starting from 1980, when liberal economic
policies began to be implemented, the relationship
between journalism and economics tended towards a
trend of complicated development. The acquisition of
newspapers operating as small-scale business
enterprises by business men from different sectors of
the economy who made them part of groups and the
resulting inclination toward horizontal, vertical and
transversal concentration as well as the relationships
that newspapers establish with agents of political
power in order to attain their economic goals put
limitations on the freedom and the quality of newsmaking
processes. Within this framework, this study
aims to analyze the effects of the economic
development in Turkey over time and the interests of
the capitalist owners of big media organizations as
major players in the economy on the field of
journalism by using an argumentative method.