Pinar Gurleyen- PhD. Student in Simon Fraser University -Canada
Perrin Ogun Emre, PhD. Candidate,Marmara University, -Turkey also Lecturer in Kadir Has University-Istanbul,Turkey
Exploring new journalistic platforms: experiences of Turkish journalist bloggers.
Findings Motivations for starting a blog
Robinson defines a journalist weblog (j-blog) as a “cross between a column, a news story
and a journal” (2006, p.64). The interviewed j-bloggers mostly start their blogs for personal
reasons such as “building a personal digital archive for their work” (Dundar; Bayramdede;
Tekelioglu and Bagmesli; interview) or to use the extra material they have produced for print
media (Gurbuz; Eser; Sahinbas, interview). Therefore the content of the blogs mostly consists of
recycled material with few exceptions mostly produced by independent journalists (i.e. Ragip Duran).
While one j-blogger explicitly states that he did not intend to create a participatory
platform in his blog (Dundar, interview) another j-blogger; Yaprak Aras Sahinbas emphasizes
that she created her blog to enhance her relationship with her readers (interview).
Liberating potentials of blogs
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This theme has been brought up by j-bloggers in terms of journalistic work as well as
citizens’ access to media. From both perspectives, different forms of internet publishing
including blogs are conceived as an important platform to break down the concentrated and
corporatized ownership structures of the mainstream media that exclude alternative voices
(Gurbuz; Duran; Arsan, Interview). That said, j-bloggers mainly emphasized the impact of the
blog format for their own news work. The non-existence of editorial control is stated as an
important asset by multiple j-bloggers in terms of maintaining the full control of the work:
I’ve experienced the benefits of the blog in the sense that it (blog) provided me with a space in
which all the decisions related to writing and publishing are taken by me (Duran, interview).
While Duran acknowledges the lack of editorial control as a positive aspect for his work,
interviewees including him think that this same phenomenon does sometimes enable the
circulation of violent or discriminatory content (on the online environment) which would
otherwise be eliminated in a news organization due to certain control mechanisms (Duran;
Arsan; Tekelioglu and Bagmesli; Gurbuz; Dundar, interview). The fact that this potential danger
is mostly associated (by the participants) with the material published by the non-professionals
indicates that professionalization and the media organizations are seen as a filter against this kind
of unethical practices. In other words, institutionalized journalism equipped with certain norms
and practiced in media organizations as a group work with the involvement of several
professionals, is seen more trustworthy than personal or amateur journalism.
In terms of the freedom from structural constraints journalists express different points of
views. Ozgur Gurbuz finds that, compared to mainstream media, censorship in blogs is “far less
significant and the self-censorship is more limited” (interview). Tekelioglu supports this by
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mentioning a story that she had not been able to cover when she was working in the mainstream
media (Tekelioglu and Bagmesli, Interview):
There are things that we cannot write about in the media.... We (journalists) are using self
censorship and I want to use this blog to talk about these subjects. [..] For instance, I’ve
interviewed Emine Erdogan (first lady). The publishing of the interviews has been prevented by
the Prime Minister. I’ve sold the recordings and transcription of the interview to Aktuel1 two
years later. If I had this blog by then, I would have published it here.
Other bloggers did not indicate similar experiences in terms of self or other types of
censorship. They do not mention any concerns about a possible conflict of interest relating to
their work in media and blogs. Yet, the words of Bayram Dede made us think about a more
subtle form of internalized control. Bayram Dede suggests that the bloggers can be held
responsible by media organizations for the content they produce in their personal blogs:
When journalists receive negative reactions for an article published in their blog, they cannot tell
to their newspapers’ executives that this does not concern the newspaper as the article is published in their
blog. This perception of responsibility can act as a filtering mechanism for the journalists and
may prevent the full usage of blogs’ liberating potentials.
Other liberating functions of the blog stated in the interviews consist of technical aspects
such as the possibility to explore a subject in more detail by the hyperlinks and using hypertexts
to enrich the material (Sahinbas; Eser, Akyildiz, Interview).
1This is a news magazine published in Turkey.
13Subjectivity versus objectivity
Most of the interviewed J-bloggers value their blogs as a personal space where they can
express themselves freely. The subjectivity of the blog format means different things for
reporters and columnists. Eser, a reporter j-blogger expresses this difference as follows:
In media you always see the same news language, the same words ... reporters are not allowed to
make comments. This is rather the columnists’ job. The content of my blog looks like my personal
observations rather news in terms of language. It has a more pleasant tone...
Thus blogs give reporters the possibility to make their own comments and share the
backstage information concerning the events they report. This last aspect is especially stated to
be an important and genuine contribution to the news work (Eser, Interview).
For columnist j-bloggers subjectivity mainly consists of being visible as a person in the
reader’s eyes: My main aim is to show people different (less-known) traits of my personality through different forms of writings (Akyildiz, Interview).
Despite these statements that embrace the subjectivity of the blog format, certain jbloggers
avoid transforming their blogs into personal diaries. In other words, they want to keep
this personal space in the contours of their profession (Tekelioglu and Bagmesli; Eser; Dundar;
Interview). This concern for a professional stance in the blog sometimes translates itself into
adaptation of a more formal news language which is a reflection of the notion of objectivity in
journalism. Bayramdede (Interview) for instance insists on using the same language in his blog
and his newspaper articles.
14 As most of our j-bloggers use the content that were originally produced for the news
organizations, their work do not demonstrate a great shift from the notion of objectivity.
Moreover, they do not express such a concern. However in some cases (i.e. Eres; Azar,
Interview) they prefer to personalize the news stories by including information about the news
making processes and the backstage stories. This in turn contributes to the demystification of the
news work and can be interpreted as a divergence from the role of the journalist as an objective
observer. Participation/Gate-keeping Almost all the interviewees acknowledge the importance of the interactive character of blogs. Yet the nature of this interactivity is mostly limited to a feed-back mechanism that consists of readers’ comments. We observe in one case that even this type of simple involvement
is denied: Tekelioglu and Bagmesli do not allow reader comments on their blog on the grounds
that this might be abused by some readers to post “insulting and violent” comments (Interview).
Others mention that they attribute user comments a fact checking function: “The details
that you might have missed or mistakes that you make are commented on by the readers”
(Bayramdede, Interview). Bilge Eser likens this to Big Brother and mentions constraining
aspects: “[..].at the beginning I was writing in a rather sloppy manner about the elections,
politicians or political parties...but I’m receiving more comments now and choosing my words
more attentively. However, when I’ve realized this, I said ‘wait a minute I did not start this blog
for this’” (Interview).
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Journalists also use their blogs to announce (or get feed-back about) their works such as novels
or documentaries (Dundar, Interview). Among the nine journalists interviewed only one, who
focuses on fashion and trends, uses the readers as news sources and even news produced by the
readers (Sahinbas, Interview).
Exploring new journalistic platforms; experiences of Turkish Journalist Bloggers
by Pinar Gurleyen and Perrin Ogun Emre Buraya Tıklayarak röportajın tamamımını görebilirsiniz
Exploring new journalistic platforms; experiences of Turkish Journalist Bloggers
by Pinar Gurleyen and Perrin Ogun Emre Buraya Tıklayarak röportajın tamamımını görebilirsiniz
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