Approaches of newspaper association presidents in Turkey towards human rights and rights-based journalism concepts: A cross-regional examination

Authors : Elif Kebelek, Ülhak Çimen

Pages : 1098-1123

Doi:10.48146/odusobiad.1511092

View : 48 | Download : 48

Publication Date : 2025-06-29

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :The importance of local media organizations in shaping the local agenda and local public opinion is an undeniable fact. Many factors, such as individual attitudes, ideological understanding of the institution they work for, economic concerns, etc., can be effective in the reporting practices of people working in local media. This study is important in that it deals with the concept of human rights, which has a universal value, and the concept of rights- oriented journalism, which is closely related to this concept, by conducting an interregional local media research throughout Turkey. The aim of the research is to examine the approaches of the presidents of the journalists’s associations in Turkey to the concepts of human rights and rights-oriented journalism with an interregional comparison. In accordance with the purpose of the study, the provinces of Samsun, Istanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Erzurum, Mersin and Kahramanmaraş were selected as samples to represent seven different geographical regions. In the representation, the provinces with the highest number of local media organizations were taken into consideration. In order to have a more comprehensive understanding of the working discipline of local media organizations in the cities selected within the sample and to get to know the local media more closely, semi-structured interviews were held with the presidents of the journalists’ associations of the provinces. As a result of the semi-structured interviewsconducted with the participants, it was concluded that the participants generally care about human rights and rights-oriented journalism, but they lack training in these concepts. In addition, it has been noticed that local media employees are of the opinion that some institutional factors, rather than individual factors, are effective on the issue of making the voices of people who are in the minority or sometimes marginalized in the society heard or reporting these people. It has been concluded that factors such as workplaces’s economic profit concerns, relations with dominant powers, pressure from advertisers, etc. affect the reporting processes of local media employees and that this effect is felt more especially in eastern provinces or in big cities with a lot of cosmopolitanism.
Keywords : Yerel medya, hak odaklı habercilik, gazeteciler cemiyeti başkanları, insan hakları, yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme

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