Gazetecilik Becerileri Üzerine Bir Alan Araştırması: Türkiye Örneği
Nurcan Törenli, Zafer KıyanBilişim teknolojilerinin, özellikle de internetin hızla yaygınlaşmasıyla birlikte geleneksel gazetecilik pratikleri dönüşüm geçirmeye başlamıştır. Bu çalışma geleneksel gazetecilik pratiklerinde tanık olduğumuz bu dönüşümü gazetecilik mesleğine özgü beceriler üzerinden tartışmaya açmayı hedeflemektedir. Söz konusu tartışma çok sayıda soruyu içermekle birlikte bu makale kapsamındaki çabayı ayakta tutacak temel soru şudur: Herkes gazeteciliği benzer teknolojik araçlarla ve ‘türün geneline özgü insani’ becerilerle yapmaya başladığında meslekten gazeteciler alana özgü becerilerini nasıl tanımlayacaklardır? Çalışma, gazetecilik mesleğine özgülendiği kabul edilen becerilerde bir değişim olduğunu kabul etmekle birlikte bu değişimin toplumsal ihtiyaçlardaki değişimden çok birikim sorunu yaşayanların insana özgü üretici gücün bileşenlerine kendi sınıfsal ihtiyaçları yönünde yapmış ve halen yapmakta oldukları bilinçli müdahalelerinin sonucunda gerçekleştiğini varsaymaktadır. Çalışmanın nicel verisi yazılı basında çalışan toplam 86 muhabir gazetecinin katıldığı bir alan araştırmasından elde edilmiştir. Anket yoluyla elde edilen 4,300 veri, nicel ve nitel teknikler kullanılarak analiz edilmiştir. Elde edilen sonuçlar, medyanın kurumsal yapılanması içinde devreye sokulan yeni iş bölümü/çalışma ilişkilerinin ve artan ölçüde teknoloji kullanımının gazetecilerin mesleki becerilerinde yol açtığı tahrifatı ve neden olduğu mesleki dönüşümü anlamamıza yardım etmektedir.
Analysing Journalism Skills: A Field Study on Turkish Case
Nurcan Törenli, Zafer KıyanWith the rapid spread of information technologies, especially the internet, traditional journalistic practices have begun to be transformed. This study aims to discuss this transformation witnessed in traditional journalism practices through the skills specific to journalism. Despite such a discussion that poses many questions, the fundamental question underlying the efforts made within the scope of this study is, “In an era where everyone has begun to engage in journalism using similar technological tools and ‘skills specific to the human species’, how do journalists describe their own professional skills?” Although the study acknowledges the presence of a change in the skills that are considered to be specific to this profession, it also assumes that rather than being triggered by social needs, this change is a result of conscious interventions in the components of human-specific productive power, which were and are still undertaken by those that experience capital accumulation problem. The quantitative data of the research were obtained from a field study, in which 86 reporters working in the print media participated. A total of 4,300 items of data acquired through a survey were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative techniques. The results provide an insight into the distortion of journalists’ professional skills by the new division of labor division/work relations activated by the institutional structuring of the media and the increasing use of technology, as well as assisting in understanding the changes initiated by this distortion.
With the spread of information technologies, especially the internet, traditional journalistic practices have been transformed, and the argument that ‘everyone can engage in journalism’ has become increasingly adopted (Gleason, 2015). Recently, an attempt to embody this argument has brought about forms of journalism that are described by newly constructed noun or adjective phrases (e.g., drone journalism), which are often difficult to follow since most become obsolete in a short time (for other examples, see Appelgren, & Nygren, 2014; Carlson, 2015; Clerwall, 2014; Fink, & Anderson, 2014; Tremayne, & Andrew, 2014; Van Dalen, 2012). Moreover, this situation is not only specific to journalism. Today, when social relations are realized more intensively by means of technology, new occupations are formed around the activities where the rapidly increasing data/information stack is used as a production input and the outputs are exchanged, as well as around the skills required by such activities.
This study, which aims to open the transformation of journalistic practices to discussion through professional skills specific to journalism, seeks to answer the following fundamental question: In an era where everyone has begun to engage in journalism using similar technological tools and ‘skills specific to the human species’, how do journalists themselves describe their own professional skills? The study also tries to find answers to sub-questions surrounding this main question: Do journalists, whose traditional mission is to turn social realities into news and present them to the public, see themselves as professionals? What journalistic skills are prioritized or considered non-functional by the current professional transformation? What kind of deconstruction do the components of journalism-specific cognitive and instrumental skills undergo? What skills do journalists consider that they have or should have today?
In order to find answers to these questions, 86 journalists working in the print media were surveyed from April to September 2018. The questionnaire was designed with a total of 10 items and five options under each item representing the specific instrumental and cognitive skills of journalists. Each item in the questionnaire was related to a category of professional qualifications about journalism, and similarly, each option corresponded to a professional skill component associated with journalism. Since the research aimed at finding evidence of the change in the composition of professional skills specific to journalism through information technologies, the item headings were designed to reflect the stages of the professional transformation process. Accordingly, it was attempted to determine the skills that the journalists prioritized or pushed aside during the entry into journalism, for the performance of the profession, and in the continuation of the profession.
Approximately 4,300 items of quantitative data obtained from the questionnaire were subjected to a two-stage analysis process: In the first stage, the data were coded in Excel to determine which professional skills related to journalism were strongly and which were weakly emphasized by the participants. This coding was useful to perceive the participants’ hierarchy of journalism-specific professional skills. In the second stage, the data were subjected to a qualitative analysis considering different stages of the journalism profession. Thus, it was aimed to reveal the extent to which the differences in skill components could be explained through the professional transformation.
As a result of the analysis of the survey data, the following basic findings were obtained: The participants attributed the greatest importance to the selection of journalism in undergraduate education for the entry into the profession. During the performance of journalism, the participants put their instrumental skills into practice more than their cognitive skills. Lastly, they considered investigative journalism practices to have the greatest effect on their continuation of the profession. When the findings are evaluated as a whole, it can be stated that rather than treating them as an integrated organic composition, journalists tend to see the skill components of productive forces as discrete capacity elements limited to the performance of their profession which were sometimes utilized while at other times pushed aside. These results provide an insight into the distortion of journalists’ professional skills by the new division of labor division/ work relations activated by the institutional structuring of the media and the increasing use of technology, as well as help us understand the changes initiated by this distortion.
