Media with its news, approaches and fractions in the new media age

List of Contributors

Prof. Dr. Bünyamin Ayhan

Selçuk University, Faculty of Communication

Asst. Prof. Dr. Sarp Bağcan

Istanbul Gelisim University, Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences

Research Fellow Enes Baloğlu

Selçuk University, Faculty of Communication

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Çetinkaya

Marmara University, Faculty of Communication

Research Fellow Servet Can Dönmez

Mersin University, Faculty of Communication

Asst. Prof. Dr. Ivo Furman

Bilgi University, Faculty of Communication

Asst. Prof. Dr. Abdulkadir Gölcü

Selçuk University, Faculty of Communication

Prof. Dr. Nurettin Güz

Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University, Faculty of Communication

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ali Murat Kırık

Marmara University, Faculty of Communication

Asst. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Sena Kösedağ

Bozok University, Faculty of Communication

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mihalis (Michael) Kuyucu

Istinye University, Faculty of Economic, Administrative and Social Sciences

Asst. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Taylan

Mersin University, Faculty of Communication

Asst. Prof. Dr. Recep Ünal

Mersin University, Faculty of Communication

Asst. Prof. Dr. Ceren Yegen

Muş Alparslan University, Faculty of Communication←13 | 14→

←14 | 15→Part 1 New Media and News←15 | 16→

←16 | 17→Nurettin Güz

News Transformation from Traditional Media to New Media*

Introduction

The news has become the most controversial element of the field since the first days of media organizations up until today. This phenomenon, which has led to the emergence and institutionalization of these institutions, still maintains its primary position as a result of people’s curiosity, the need to learn what is happening around them and around the world, and to acquire new knowledge. Although the number of broadcasting institutions that make thematic analysis increased parallel to technological developments and the development of freedom in line with the form of the globalization, the news for media organizations, in general, remains a priority.

The 21st century which we live in has brought about new media tools in the field of mass communication and new discussions through these tools. The new media has emerged from the end of the past century, and its spread has been in this century. New media, like traditional media, fulfill the same role and perform the same functions as the indispensable element of the political system in democracies. The new media is becoming a subject of debate with its organizational structure, position, its relation to the target group, its effects, and role in public opinion formation and explanation, and its differences that it made about the news.

Many different definitions of news (Milburn, 1998: 232; Girgin, 1998: 13-14; Schlapp, 2000: 21) continue to be discussed at different angles with the new media. The news passes through a series of stages from its source and compilation to writing, publishing and its distribution to the target audience. In these processes, it has been always a matter of debate how faithful the newsman remains to the news event, subject, the idea, the change and the development and how much s/he maintains the essential position (Shoemaker, 2009: 12; Gaillard, 1991: 38). There is always a criticism regarding the degree of loyalty to ethical principles while choosing which news among hundreds of information, events ←17 | 18→and news arriving at news centers of media organizations are selected according to general publishing policies, and the degree of loyalty to ethical principles (whether loyal to them or not) while reprocessing the material (McQuail and Windahl, 1986: 209; Doob, 1966: 429).

The media field, which has developed rapidly in almost all periods but has been stunning since the 1980s, has expanded its area in individual and social life with the spread of the new media that differs from the traditional media. In this process which the news is delivered from the source to the target audience, new media reporting becomes a separate subject of debate. The new media journalism varies from the positioning of news centers to news sources, from news reporter to editor, from the processes of news production to gatekeeping (Güz et al., 2015). The change in news and news production processes, which has been one of the most controversial issues for many years, constitutes the subject of this study. In the study, the transformation in the news with the new media is revealed from different perspectives. In this framework, firstly the news is discussed, then the organization of news centers, news sources, news contents and access to this news, presentation of news, control of news are discussed.

Traditional Media and New Media

Mass media that is used as corresponding of the word ‘media’ and provides news and information for the masses, of which the whole or a section of the society is in a receptive position, (Girgin, 2000: 47) are known as the source of news and information or power tools that spread, affect, control the innovations (Türkoğlu, 2010: 70). The functions of these instruments, which have been effective in almost every period but become an indispensable part of the political system with the development of democracy, have also been the subject of debate. Media is criticized for disregarding its own public nature and rather focusing on the entertainment function instead of informing people (Köker, 1998: 131-133), for distorting the social reality and presenting it to target audience (Hall, 1993: 507-509), and for the incompatible purpose of profit making with publicness (Adaklı, 2010: 61-96). Despite these criticisms, it seems that the media has filled an important gap in the social system by transmitting the content suitable to its principles (Yaşın, 2006: 651). On the other hand, it is useful to state that the media support the debates within the framework of democratic political rules (Curran, 1993: 217-218).

The media influences and is influenced by the target masses, while facilitating the production and dissemination of news, information and thought, and the establishment of communication channels among individuals, groups, and ←18 | 19→societies (McQuail, 1994: 41-42). News and information reporting has become one of the indispensable elements of democracies because of its functions such as educating and entertaining, socializing, creating an atmosphere of discussion, culturally improving and integration (MacBride et al., 1980: 283), as well as serving as a bridge between the administration, parliament and people, and contributing to the formation of public opinion, (Dönmezer, 1983: 2-11; İçel, 1983: 519).

The media of which the effect increases almost in every period increased its approachability and its influence in parallel with the development of technology. With the Internet, which is defined as a large computer network that allows access to information, contact between humans and connects the people with computer networks, (Di Maggio et al., 2001: 307-308), it has become possible to convey the media content digitally to target audience as it has spread since the end of the 20th century (Negroponte, 1996: 153; Timisi, 2003: 121). The Internet has opened the gate of a new era of in the field of communication by incorporating the elements such as writing, voice, image, a text message which are important tools of communication between people besides written, verbal and visual media, which is newspaper, magazine, radio, and television (Atabek, 2003). In the new era, digital networks’ connecting of people and information together has been regarded as the technological revolution of the 1990s (Alioğlu, 2011: 21) and facilitated the transition to the information society (Yerlikaya, 2004: 19). The new structure also referred to as Internet journalism (Gezgin, 2002), has laid the ground for the globalization of media content across national, regional and national borders, enabling any media to be accessed from anywhere in the world, regardless of location and accessibility.

Along with the proliferation of the Internet, new tools have entered into the area of media in the late 20th century, especially with the beginning of the 21st century. In the new period, mass media such as newspapers, magazines, radio, and television started to be called traditional media (Gorman and McLean, 2003: 185; Geray, 2003: 17). The new technological environment has brought these traditional instruments together, sometimes in the same and sometimes in different formats on the Internet, and unlike these, the new mass media, which broadcast only on the Internet, has set the new mass communication tools with the target audience. These tools, some of which consist the functions specific to computers and some consist the structures specific to communication tools, that are two-way (Törenli, 2005: 87-88), and carry and transmit the information digitally using the computer and information technologies (Yüksel and Gürcan, 2005: 201; Aslan, 2013: 106; Dilmen, 2007: 114) are defined as new media. In the new era, its field is broadened with a mobile phone, satellite technology, ←19 | 20→telecommunications infrastructure, computer, tele-text, video-text, the tools like CD and DVD being regarded within the concept of new media tools (Binark, 2007: 21; Şahin, 2016: 52).

The new media has five basic features as a digital representation (numerical representation), modularity, automation, variability and transcoding (Manovich, 2001: 27-48). The new media contains an environment in which the receiver and transmitter establish a simultaneous communication and interaction (McMillian, 2006: 205), despite the number of users every individual can text private messages, and, which gives the opportunity (Geray, 2003: 27-48) to send and receive messages at different times and in real time (Castells, 2006: 26-27). Similarly, the new media has the characteristics of providing a combination of different data, presenting the data in different forms, gathering, disseminating and storing information (Pavlik, 1998: 80). Criticisms that have been put forward for traditional media such as that it mediates the mainstream discourse, and that it produces contents in line with the way which the masses want to hear, see and think have been also argued for the new media (Herman and Chomsky, 2008: 15-18). However, when the characteristics of the new media are taken into consideration, it appears that these criticisms are not very appropriate.

In many respects, the new media is different from traditional media. Firstly, the space that limits the traditional media (for printed media) and the time (for verbal and visual media) has not been a problem for new media anymore. Archive, which poses a major problem in traditional media, is not a problem in the new media. The obstacles for transmitting the content to the target audience in the traditional media are not an issue for the new media. Also, the ownership structure of the new media is very different. While there is a need for a substantial accumulation of capital to have a medium in the traditional media, this has changed with the new media. Due to the low costs, the number of ownership and channels in the new media has increased in a way that cannot be compared with the previous one, and it became almost impossible to control the area with a changing and growing ownership structure. According to the position of the medium in the traditional media, the target group which is generally local, regional, national and global and more homogeneous together with the new media has moved to a global dimension as long as the codes in the messages are common, and if a thematic publishing is not aimed, it comes to a heterogeneous position with unlimited access. Discussions continue regarding the new media that it provides non-popularization by sending general or private messages to individuals or certain groups as a result of the mutual interaction of new media with the target audiences (Van Dijk, 2004: 146; Törenli, 2005: 161).

In terms of reaching the content, new media has a great speed, (Güz et al., 2017: 7; Carlson, 2005: 68-71) it knows no limits in time and space, (Basım, 2006: 6), offers a rich variety of topics to target group and researchers (Herring, 2004: 47) and provides great convenience. The target audience is not only the user but the content provider (Oblak, 2005: 87-106) with regard to the participation in the process. Access may differ depending on the position of the medium in traditional media While the publication period is determinant in terms of written media, in radio and television there is an uninterrupted broadcasting, so the content can be taken simultaneously with the broadcast, (Williams, 2003: 74), and there is also a requirement to reach a platform where broadcasts can be received. In the new media, since the access can be done without limitation of time and space, and in terms of convenience in access, a great advantage is provided compared to the traditional media.

The fact that the new media is characterized by its convergence (Yıldırım, 2010: 231; Geray, 2003: 19; Uğur, 2003: 95; Van Dijk, 1999: 9) and that it carries all the elements of traditional media, in other words, its multimedia function ←21 | 22→and contents are called hypertext (Narin, 2016: 125-138; Binark, 2014: 17), is of course its most important difference from the traditional media. In the new media, it is possible to find the characteristics of printed verbal and visual media in a single environment. Publishing in a completely digital environment (Değirmencioğlu, 2016: 593) and digitalization constitute the most important feature of the new media. Also, the user’s freedom to choose the content and the time without a time and space constraint (Rogers and Allbritton, 1995: 177-195), and to direct the target group of the content to new contents and information with one click appears as a property specific to the new media. It is becoming an absolute necessity to use hypertext property of the contents to inform the target audience in the context of ethical principles. It should be noted that it is always possible to use the hypertext feature for unethical purposes when it is taken into consideration that the income of advertisings and commercials and other revenues in the new media change depending on the rate of click and page retention of the target audience.

In terms of media organizations, news has been a top priority in almost every period. The media of which the effectiveness always increase in social and the political system has been usually considered with its news reporting function. It would not be wrong to say that while the news is maintaining its primary position in the traditional and new media, news reporting is transforming with new media.