ECREA16-Abstract

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Friday, November 11

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PP 367

The Working Conditions and Socio Economic Rights of Reporters and Cameramen in Turkish News Production

M. Coskun

Giresun university, communication faculty-radio television cinema department, Giresun, Turkey

ABSTRACT While the production process within the media economy changes with the new global economic and political order , among the strata most af‑

fected by this order media workers take the lead. People working in the news departments are forced to struggle against the working conditions in worklife

due to the reasons like the governments designing the laws protecting the media employers in Turkey, neo liberal competitive capitalist surroundings and

the abundance of spare workforce wanting to work in the media sector. This study focuses on the production and labour of the press workers in the news

sector of Turkey.The unemployment problems along with the legal and social rights of the reporters and cameramen in the television sector is a particular

focus.This study claims that the professionals in the news production are split into two different groups called 'the deciders' and 'the performers'. National

broadcast news agencies, television news centers established in Ankara and Istanbul constitute the research universe of the study. In order to identify

the working conditions of the news professionals 10 in depth interviews were conducted with the personel working in different news channels , agencies

and centers ,in different age and sex and each over ten years of experience . For the purpose of understanding and trying to explain the role of the jounalists

in the news production and news business, these inquiries provided important data.The working atmosphere is analysed in the light of the data collected

from interviews with,reporters and cameramen as news workers who get by with their physical and mental labour and these were mapped out in terms

of their social and economic rights. .During the interviews news reporters and cameramen unanimously stated that they are not given any right for ex‑

pression and the working conditions were worsening. Unsecured employment in the sector, cheap workforce, flexible work hours and ununionising have

become the fundamental dynamics in the news sector .Thus,a conclusion that the journalists are alienated to their profession is reached. Key Words: News

Production,labour, capital,labor union.

PP 368

Roles and Dynamics of Communities of Practice in a Changing Media Sector: The Case of Brussels-Based Journalists

S. Plazy

Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles, PReCoM, Bruxelles, Belgium

“Communities of practice are everywhere. They are a familiar experience, so familiar perhaps that it often escapes our attention. Yet when it is given a name

and brought into focus, it becomes a perspective that can help us understand our world better” (Wenger, 2006). The media landscape is experiencing

an on-going evolution, and journalists, in Brussels like in other places, are facing increasing challenges: insecurity, difficult access to the job market, new

trans- and multi-media productions (Standaert, 2015), for which they have to find solutions. They need places where to talk to each other, to share about

their experiences, to learn new practices and to create useful networks. In these places, what was identified by the literature as communities of practice

can emerge and provide an essential response to these challenges. Journalists and other media workers are gathering together, blurring the lines between

the different job qualifications (journalists, cameramen, web developers, web designers etc.), in search for new projects, new ideas, and more innovation.

This study, which is part of a broader research funded by the Brussels Region on Brussels based media workers and media companies, looks at communities

of practice in order to understand this new socio-economic context faced by journalists, and shows how these communities help them to adapt and to cope

with these new challenges. Using insights from the literature on media clusters, media workers and communities of practice, the first part of this paper

elaborates further on the conceptual framework proposed by Komorowski, Wiard & Plazy (2015) to provide a comprehensive approach on the different

dimensions inherent to communities of practice for journalists.Thus the seven conceptual parameters (called the 7P’s) of communities of practice addressed

in this study are: Place (locations of communities of practice), Proximity (links between members of these communities), Pertinence (different domains

of the communities), Profile (members’ roles), Path-dependency (historical and institutional factors explaining why communities of practice are what

they are today), Policies (policy incentives or obstacles towards creating or taking part in communities of practice), and finally Performance (achievements

of such communities, workers’ gains from joining them). We argue that this conceptual framework is useful to grasp the changes faced by journalists and

helps to understand the evolutions of the identity of journalists, of their practices, of their profession. The second part of this paper presents the results

of an ongoing empirical research based on semi-structured interviews and on an online questionnaire addressed to Brussels-based journalists and media

workers. This study aims at elucidating the roles and dynamics of communities of practice for journalists and provides insights into the questions stated in

the first part of the paper. As a result we hope to demonstrate that communities of practice are a reflection of the evolution of the journalistic profession. In

these communities, created by the needs and desires of journalists and media workers, the profession redefines itself both in sociological and economical

terms in order to respond to the new challenges it faces.

PP 369

How Safe Is It? Being a Citizen Journalist in Turkey

B. Çoban

, B. Ataman

Doğuş University, Communication Sciences, İstanbul, Turkey

This study discusses how and in what ways activist citizen journalists in Turkey, who initiated a brand-new alternative new media practice, develop safety

tactics against repressive strategies of the government. Since there is no legal framework for citizen journalism and they are unseen by journalists’ asso‑

ciations in Turkey, it is a must for the citizen journalists to learn protecting their basic rights; and cover themselves while covering the news. In fact, even

respectable journalists of the reputable media institutions are constantly being jailed due to the news stories found harmful by the Turkish government. In

this study, we focus on a handful of citizens, who intervened to the public space during the Gezi Park Resistance and successive protests with a clear jour‑

nalistic aim. Because of the outrage caused by the police violence and mainstreammedia’s indifference, they created their own make-shift media outlets, or

became the media themselves through their mobile communication devices and social media accounts. Ever since, people, but mostly the activists of social