National Media Coverage of CSOs

In this study conducted between 1 July 2019 and 1 July 2020, national media content on CSOs was gathered through searches. The keywords used were “association,” “foundation,” and “cooperative.” Of the resulting 42,597 news stories, 2358 were deemed to be irrelevant; the remaining 40,239 stories were considered as news stories related to CSOs and formed the basis of the study. Out of these 40,239 news stories, 2274 were chosen via simple random selection to form a sample, and then coded and categorized according to 46 variables.

This yielded preliminary findings concerning the national media coverage of CSOs. Furthermore, 14 in-depth interviews were conducted with experts from CSOs (5), media professionals (4), the private sector (2) and academia (3) so as to understand the reasons underlying the invisibility of CSOs in the media.

CSOs as “Invisible” Actors in the Media

Highlights from the ‘Representation of CSOs in National Media’ study are as follows:

“New” was the keyword most frequently used in news stories concerning CSOs in the national media, between 2019 and 2020. This word, used in phrases such as “new normal”, “new Turkey”, “new system” and “new virus”, stood out in the media coverage of CSOs, in the context of both the economic crisis and the transition to the new government system.

Between 2019 and 2020, CSOs were underrepresented in national media, and there was a 9% drop over the previous study conducted between 2018-2019. According to the recent study, the pandemic and economic issues dominated news on CSOs in the period 2019-2020, while topics such as human rights lagged behind. Although CSOs’ activities during the pandemic could allow for a larger media coverage, there was a remarkable drop in news stories on CSOs.

In the 12 months between 2019-2020, news on CSOs constituted 8,2% of all news stories; while there was a daily average of 110 news stories and a monthly average of 3357 stories featuring the words “foundation”, “association” or “cooperative”.

In the majority of the national media news stories constituting the 8,2%, CSOs were treated not as independent subjects, but rather like decorative items and secondary actors. In general, the CSOs were only mentioned by name and their activities or declarations were not covered. CSOs were the main subject in only 1 out of every 3 news stories mentioning CSOs.

CSOs were mostly covered in the “news” pages of newspapers. In the national media, CSOs were seen to be much more “invisible” in columns and interviews, where they might in fact express their ideas better. According to the so-called civil topography classification, politically oriented CSOs were mentioned in the largest portion of columns, with 27%.

Due to the pandemic, CSOs such as professional organizations became more visible (46%), while CSOs engaged in advocacy work became less so. News stories tended more to present the opinions of experts, while CSOs engaged in advocacy work for the environment and human rights were covered much less.

A sensational tone, employed across the national media to attract more readers, was also used in news on CSOs in 2019-2020. Most news stories’ content risks creating a negative impression about the specific CSO covered in the story and CSOs in general. This unfavorable tone in the news stories is due to the media’s style of journalism, as well as the forms of advocacy used by CSOs. Most news stories paint a gloomy and pessimistic picture. These news stories with a negative tone directly targeted and criminalized CSOs.

Media outlets with different world views and political positions, published content directly targeting civil society organizations. Attempts at polarization were visible.

Another noteworthy finding concerning national media coverage of CSOs was the increased use of data. Showing an increase over the previous two years (2017-2018), data usage supported the news stories casting a negative image of CSOs. Especially in 2020, large amounts of data was utilized in stories on the pandemic and economic issues.

In news stories on CSOs, there was a distance between civil society and public authorities, as was the case in the previous two years. Public authorities’ opinions were rarely cited in such news content. Only 13% of news stories on CSOs presented the opinions of public authorities. CSOs falling into the category of ‘fellow countrymen’ associations reached the highest percentage here, with 28%. Most of these news stories were about public authorities’ visits to such associations, and related declarations.

On the other hand, there were few appeals made to the public at large in CSO-related news articles. There were appeals to public authorities in only 4% of these news stories, although there was a considerable increase in certain categories. Human rights CSOs made the largest number of appeals to to public institutions, with 29%.

Overall, however, there were few calls made to the public, with the percentage remaining as low as 3%. CSOs most frequently made calls to consumers in these news stories. Despite the pandemic, the CSOs did not issue many appeals to the society via the media.

Another major finding of the study was that rarely more than one CSO was mentioned in a news story. In only 7% of CSO-related news stories, more than one CSO was named; as such, only a single CSO was covered in 93% of these news stories. Within that 7%, the focus was on not the contradictions but parallels between different CSOs.

You can access the full report in English from here. 

The Invisibility of CSOs

The major qualitative findings of the study are as follows:

• The experts interviewed generally consider that CSOs’ visibility in the media is crucial, since it helps CSOs achieve their goals.
• They also tend to believe that CSOs do not get enough media coverage and are not visible enough.
• These experts think that CSOs in Turkey do not attach much importance to interactions with the society at large, do not create specialized functions to this end, and do not allocate resources to such efforts.

In the study, the following emerge as the main problems preventing CSOs from getting better media coverage:

• To be covered at length by the media, a topic must be urgent, large-scale, immediate, and often negative.
• Most news about CSOs do not meet these criteria; and to get more media coverage, CSOs need to come up with attention-grabbing content.
• CSOs also ought to use the language of the media to get coverage.

Another issue highlighted by the experts is the media’s problematic positioning of CSOs. Accordingly, the national media positions CSOs in 5 basic ways in its news stories:

1-    CSOs as ‘extras’: CSOs are positioned as decorative items or ‘extras’, in an overall effort to legitimize a certain idea or approach.

2-    2- CSOs as powerless actors: In a condescending manner, the media presents CSOs and their beneficiaries as powerless actors.

3-    3- CSOs as criminal elements: CSOs are often criminalized or associated with certain crimes by the media.

4-    4- CSOs as members of the opposite team: Using an antagonistic language, pro-government media outlets portray “independent” CSOs in a negative light, as members of the opposite camp.

5-    5- CSOs as reactive actors: The media generally covers CSOs only in the context of specific problems, asking for their reaction in moments of crisis.

The post Civil Society in National Media: ‘Invisible or Decorative Items’ appeared first on Sivil Sayfalar.

We are a group of women who have considerable experience in media and in civil society organizations and we feel very uncomfortable with the current situation where the screens are dominated by male experts, and we also believe the road to the solution to a multitude of issues involving women including violence against women as well as to gender equality is through changing the current picture altogether. We have developed a project to change all this. We took great pains to ensure this project is functional, practical, and solution-oriented. We came up with a database of women specialists and experts. This database is our way of telling the media or the meeting organizers they have no excuse for not inviting women guests or speakers.

There are women who have specialized in pretty much every subject matter in all disciplines imaginable in Turkey. Women who are perfectly capable of being a spokesperson for whatever organization they may be involved in their respective fields, with extremely developed communication skills, well conversant in their relevant subject-matters, and who are equipped to convey their knowledge, know-how, and their messages fully and accurately are everywhere. Unfortunately, these women are not given the place and the recognition they deserve in the media. In response, we are inviting women who are experts or specialists in their respective fields and who wish to share their knowledge and their know-how with the general public through the media to sign up for this database. Our objective is to ease the “hardship” endured by the members of the media and conference or panel organizers in sourcing women guests and speakers for their programs, news stories, and meetings. We want to ensure women are seen more and heard more by the general public. Currently we are in the process of improving and enriching our database. We will be presenting this project to the media and the public once the database has enough women experts.

We are also in the planning stages for a training program to assist and ease the media exposure or public speaking anxiety of those women who are hesitant or reluctant in appearing in the media despite their considerable professional knowledge and experience.

Women from a multitude of different fields make up the project team, how did you all come together?

Media professionals, who are sensitive about the gender issue, and who are aware that the content they prepare is incomplete when they do not reflect the gender balance  dream about such a project coming around one day, so they can all benefit from that.

Ayşe Karabat and Semin Gümüşel Güner who are a part of team are among those who had such a dream. When they got together with Ayşe Yırcalı, Özge Genç, and Sabiha Senyücel Gündoğar who also had a similar dream over the years they have spent working in their respective areas in the non-governmental field, they decided to join forces with their collective experiences. The collaboration of these five women snowballed their dream into a non-profit social enterprise with the sole objective of giving the women their well-deserved visibility in the media. As the project was shaping up, Berfin Coşkun also joined bringing all her energy and skill set in the mix.

What sort of dynamics are behind the fact that women are not appearing in the media to represent their field of expertise? Or why are we seeing exclusively appearances fulfilling gender codes and women can only appear in programs and shows involving tabloid news, cooking, and child care?

As far as we are concerned, there is one fundamental reason, and two practical contributors behind that.

The fundamental reason is simply due to the dominant male perspective we see in the field of media just like all areas of public life not paying attention to women to get any visibility with their expertise. Just as women are not represented in politics to the extent they deserve, they are not represented in the media for the same reason.

As for the practical contributors, the first one is the fact that almost everyone working in the news departments of all media organizations from the producers to the reporters, to the guest coordinators and the editors, pretty much every one is using male dominated contact lists when they need guests, experts, or commentators. These lists have been compiled that way over time. Partly due to the ever present pressures brought by racing against time, they usually select names who can be reached easiest, who are available or who would be more likely to accept such an invitation, instead of calling the best experts. They are either unaware of the fact that the content they are presenting is in fact incomplete when they fail to reflect gender dynamics in the news stories and the programs they produce, or they just choose to pretend they are unaware.

The fact that the media world is set up in such a way takes us to the second practical element. Quite a number of women experts are reluctant when it comes to appearing on TV, public speaking, making statements to daily papers or online news outlets, or just appearing in news stories, they are also not experienced in these matters. There is a glass ceiling within the dominant culture and the process in media, as is the case in any other field, and there are a multitude of issues associated with their experiences of merely being women. For instance, the issue of “mansplaining” as coined by writer Rebecca Solnit. A talk show or a panel or any meeting for that matter, public or private, has the potential to become a venue where men make excessively self-confident comments by denigrating the intelligent of those across from them, women experts or not.

We want to do our part in changing the male dominated scene where specialists and experts consulted in print and visual media are mostly men. We set off with a bold objective: in the face of all the polarization in the society, our initiative will provide a place for all female experts from every political camp, all walks of life, who are determined to blow away all lines drawn in the sand before us in the name of discrimination and polarization. We certainly hope the media will be then doing its real job, meaning, fulfil its duty of being the voice of every one and every element within the society by reflecting our diversity.

Why is the visibility of women in the media important? How is this going to have an impact on how effective women will be in other fields?

Media, be it in its conventional form, or the new media, is reconstructing reality. The media not only provides us with information, it also presents us with a way of thinking, starting with deciding what is news and what is not. We embrace what is put in front of us to a certain extent whether we like it or not. We normalize what we see in the media. The language used in the process does exactly the same thing, language is not just a tool to express our thoughts, it also shapes them.

We do know when women take their place in the media in the way they deserve through their expertise; this will change, directly and indirectly, the dominant male culture and all the problems associated with it. We also believe that when women experts are represented more in the media, this will have a positive impact on a considerable number of areas ranging from education of girls to fighting with violence against women. With the increased visibility of expert women, attempts to establish power through women as is the root of every issue we are facing may be shattered, and when the issue of establishing power is shaken to its core, violence against women may as well decline.

What is the objective of the training courses within the scope of the project?

We had talked about the lack of experience and reluctance on the part of some women when it comes to appearing in the media as the second of the two practical reasons. The training program aims to break through just that. What we are planning is providing this training to volunteer women so they can become experts in communicating with the media as well, while empowering them before an audience on the screen or in the public domain.

We will be talking about the processes and the expectations involving either making statements as a reference for a news story or providing expert opinion for the media as part of this training program. We will be providing the attendees with tips on how they can use social media in a way they will make a difference.

Please click here to join the experts and specialists in the “Not Without You, Not Without Your Voice” platform.

The post “We Want to Do Our Part in Changing the Male Dominant Expert Representation in the Media” appeared first on Sivil Sayfalar.

Ceylan Özünel from YADA (Life Foundation) Foundation, who received the first mention at the opening of the panel, noted that in a media analysis called “representation of the NGOs in the national media”, they aim to reveal what barriers affect civil society’s presence in the national media.

Representation of the NGOs in the National Media: Saygın Vedat Alkurt from Adhoc Research, who conducted Media Analysis Research with Prof. Dr. Burak Özçetin, shared the goal, method and quantitative findings of the study they conducted with the data they obtained from traditional media. Alkurt stated that how visible the NGOs operating in Turkey are in the national media; how the general view of civil society news is; which event and type of news stand out in terms of visibility; which non-governmental organization can take place in the national media more than its field of activity and non-governmental topography classification, and that the contents are made to determine the tones of NGOs and society.

Projection of Civil Society in the National Media

Alkurt, clarifying the research method, data collection and coding, explained that according to the research carried out between 1 July 2019 and 1 July 2020, 2358 out of 42,597 raw content obtained by searching all data on the media representation of NGOs reflected in the national media with the keywords “association”, “foundation”, “cooperative”, identified as out-of-context and the remaining 40,239 news was described as news related to civil society and formed the basis of the research. From the 40,239 data in question, a simple random selection was made, 2274 news was selected as a sample, and then the content was categorized by coding according to 46 different variables.

In addition to preliminary findings on the reflection of civil society in the national media, Alkurt said that, a total of 14 in-depth interviews with experts from the civil society (5), media representatives (4), private sector (2) and the academy (3) were evaluated to understand the reasons behind the non-appearance of NGOs in the media. In addition to these negotiations, about 110 NGO representatives conducted interviews and made a dialogue mapping, Alkurt said that this map will also be published soon.

Civil Society as a “Decorative Subject” or Unequivocally “Invisible” Actor in the Media  

Highlights from the findings of the NGO representation survey in the national media are:

• “New” is the most used keyword in the NGO related news on the national media between 2019-2020. The word “new normal”, “new Turkey”, “new system” and “new virus” in the news has become a prominent concept for the civil society news on the axis of both the economic crisis and the transition to the new government system.
• Between 2019-2020, the representation of the civil society on the national media remained at a low level. There was a 9% drop from the previous survey in 2018-2029. In 2019-2020, the main topics covered by the study were pandemic and economic problems, while issues such as human rights were left behind. Although civil society activities in the conditions of the epidemic allowed an increase in news, the decrease in the rate of news publication was noted as remarkable data.
• In the 12 months between 2019-2020, the proportion of the civil society news among all the news was 8.2%. In all news the average number of daily news in which “foundations, associations or cooperatives” were discussed, was 110 and 3357 news on a monthly basis.
• Civil society was positioned as a decorative subject and secondary actor rather than a subject on its own in the majority of these 8.2% news, which is determined as civil society news in the national media. Only the name of the NGOs was included in the news, while their activities or statements were not included. In only 1 out of every 3 NGO content reports, NGOs became the main subject of the news.
• The category in which NGO news is most included is the “news” category of the newspapers. The national media “invisibility” of NGOs is further enhanced in columnists and in interviews where they can express themselves directly. According to the civil topography classification, political-axis NGOs are the most columnist-producing NGOs with 27%.
• As a result of the pandemic, the visibility of NGOs that make up professional organizations has increased (46%), while NGOs that conduct advocacy activities have decreased. Again, the opinion of experts was more included in the news, while those who advocate in areas such as the environment and human rights were less involved.
• In 2019-2020, the sensational approach favoured by the media to make the news read has also been repeated by the civil society. Most of the news has content that will create negative thoughts about both the NGO that is the subject of the news and the civil society in general. In the formation of this negative approach in the news, both the way the media reported and the way their NGOs defended had an effect. The news painted a picture of revelation and pessimism. The news in question, which had a negative approach, directly targeted and criminalized the civilian movements.
• Media outlets with different world views and political positions featured incriminating content that directly targeted civilian movements. Here, too, projections of polarization were seen.
• Another finding that attracted attention in the civil society news in the national media was the increased use of data in NGO news. Proportionally increased data usage compared to the previous two years (2017-2018) functioned as a support for the news that highlighted the negative. Data sharing was often done, especially in the context of the pandemic and the economy in 2020.
• The distance between civil society and the public has continued as in the previous two years. The public opinion was often not included in the news content in question. The proportion of the NGO news that included the views of public managers was only 13%. The news of the NGOs, which fall into the category of citizen associations, was among the news with the highest proportion of public opinion with 28%. The Visits to fellow countrymen associations and statements constituted a large part of these news.
• The ratio of public addressing/calling on the news involving civil society was quite low in total. In all civil society News, the proportion of publicly called news was 4%, but there was a significant increase in certain categories. The NGOs operating in the field of human rights were the highest proportion of calling public institutions, about 29%.
• The call made by the civil society to decision makers at a low level also applied to the society: the rate of calls made to the public remained at 3%. The consumers were the most called-upon segment of the society. Despite the pandemic, there were not many calls in the media that were reflected on the society by NGOs.
• Again, another important finding of the study was the low rate of joint participation of NGOs in the national media. In NGO news, the rate of being referred to by another NGO remained quite weak at 7%. Therefore, 93% of NGO News did not have another NGO name. About 7% of the NGOs appeared together, while NGOs were portrayed not through oppositions, but through coexistence.

“Civil Society in the Grasp of Invisibility”

Prof. Dr. Burak Özçetin who shared the qualitative explained how important for a civil society  to be visible in the media through the findings of his interview with 14 people within the scope of the research.

Explaining that the visibility of NGOs in the media is critical both in terms of increasing the impact power of NGOs and ensuring their financial sustainability, Özçetin shared the following points that the experts referred in common;

• It is important that civil society is visible in the media; because the visibility is vital to achieving the objectives of the relevant NGO.
• There is a strong opinion that NGOs do not get enough coverage in the media and they are not visible enough.
• The experts believe that Turkish civil society does not care about communication with society, does not aim to develop expertise on this issue and does not devote resources to it.

Özçetin listed the problem areas in front of the media being able to find media coverage from NGOs with the determinations of the experts he interviewed as follows;

• For a report to be valued by the media, it must be urgent, magnitude, proximity, and often negative.
• Because news about NGOs is often stuck in one of these filters, the NGOs need remarkable content to be among these priorities.
• The NGOs need to use the language of the media to find a place in the media.

The experts who are referred to their opinion within the framework of opinions that define the axis of polarization in Turkey on the media, where news that civil society does not have a place in the national media, often use the depiction of “monoblocmedia”, while highlighting concerns about state control and the nature of the media. As for public control, two main arguments seem to prevail: The direct political interventions of the state and the relationship of capital driving the mainstream media with the politics.

Another point that experts in the study pointed out is the way of media positioning NGOs in a problematic way. Accordingly, the national media positions NGOs in 5 different ways in the news:

1-NGOs as figurative actor: decorative positioning, participation as a secondary or figurative actor aiming to increase the legitimacy of an idea or approach.

2-NGOs as an element of incapacity: presenting NGOs and NGO beneficiaries as incapable actors in the media and dominating a language that looks from the hill.

3-NGOs as a criminal element: NGOs are usually involved in the media by being criminalized or associated with a crime.

4-NGOs as players of the opposite team: Language established through the relationship of Opposition, always negative coverage of “independent” NGOs in the pro-government media, the language of the opposite neighborhood.

5-NGOs as reactive actors: NGOs are mostly involved in the media based on problems and reactions, the microphone is extended when there is a crisis.

According to Özçetin, the most basic finding reached in the research is the confirmation that the visibility issue is bilateral. On the one hand, the media do not see the NGOs for various reasons, on the other hand, the NGOs do not attach enough importance to the communication with the media in general. Beyond the polarization discussions, Özçetin evaluated the findings in terms of media and capital relations and underlined that unlike other periods, Turkey is going through a “very interesting” period.

“Has good journalism turned into civil society activity?”

The second part of the panel, entitled “Civil Society and Media in the Grip of Polarization”, was moderated by Emine Uçak from Sivil Sayfalar Melda Onur, Burçak Onur Belli and Prof.  Dr. Yaman Akdeniz participated.

Emine Uçak said in his speech that the civil society and the media have become partners in exploring and making visible problems, noting that both actors should be in a structure that can perform this function but at the moment, an alternative media is mentioned because the media cannot perform its function. Saying that civil society is also an actor who has become ineffective as a result of its polarization and closure to its own subject, Uçak said that “good journalism itself has become civil society” expressed by Ali Duran Topuz at a meeting. He expressed that he found it more appropriate to be evaluated within the axis of “field and new media” discussions.

“Each Actor Created His Own Media”

Melda Onur from the Social Rights Association, who received the first mention in this section, noted that there is no mainstream media in Turkey, noting that the pressure of power on the media is decisive in the emergence of many independent media outlets after the trip process. Onur said that the influence of civil society on the politics within the framework of his political experience is excessive, contrary to what is believed, and stressed that despite the rules that allowed the civil sphere to expand in the early periods of the ruling party. Over the time it has created a parallel media and NGO and the process continues in this way. Onur stated that it is not necessary to despair with the findings of the research, and stressed that each NGO or even each actor can create their own media and therefore their own sphere of influence using digital opportunities.

“There is a loss of skill and novelisation in the media”

After Onur, the journalist Burçak Onur Belli shared her observations and experiences about her periods working for Turkish and foreign press together with Press in Arrest. I think journalism should remain as journalism,” said Belli, and shared her opinion that journalism, which has passed the editorial control system and done properly, should remain as the most influential source of the news. According to Belli who stressed that she does not find it right to use concepts such as ”alternative media“ and that all media channels must adhere to the same principles, all media ”have a loss of skill and muscle” in general.

“The Visibility Remains Second To Other Problems”

The last speaker of the panel was Prof. Dr. Yaman Akdeniz from Bilgi University, interpreted the findings of the study through the Freedom of Expression Association and the Disabled Web experience and touched on many problems of the civil society. In his speech, Akdeniz noted that the current legal ground and the contraction in the civil field in Turkey, the height of the number of blocked contents that they place on the disabled website, and their sites are also blocked, noting that I was initially a choice not to be visible from the point of view of their associations. Akdeniz, 2 years ago, despite the establishment of the Freedom of Expression Association’s website recently opened, rights violations on their websites when they put the disabled website 2 times blocked, the process moved to the Constitutional Court and continued their legal struggle, he said.

Drawing attention to the issue of resource and project management, which is one of the vital problems of civil society, Akdeniz emphasized the need for funds that NGOs can get support quickly and use flexibly in a way that they can continue their main activity areas. Another determination of the Akdeniz was that both civil society and the media were forced to choose not to publish or make some content visible, operating the mechanism of self-censorship due to political pressure and sanctions. Akdeniz, who argued that media visibility remained secondary to other problems of the civil society, emphasized that supervisory pressure on civil society, regulations that envisage serious sanctions, and other bureaucratic obstacles, including the law on preventing the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The post Representation of NGOs in national media: “Invisible or Decorative Subject” appeared first on Sivil Sayfalar.

Oya Ünlü, director of gender equality study group and Erol Bilecik, board chairman of TÜSİAD mentioned TÜSİAD’s studies on gender equality in the publicity meeting. Oya Ünlü indicated that their decision on making studies about media is to struggle against gender stereotypes. “We decided to focus on the sector of TV series after studying on commercials and publishing a guide for advertisers,” she said.

Demet Akbağ from Actors and Actresses Union, Birol Güven from TESİYAP (Association for TV and Cinema Film Producers) ,Ahmet Pura from RVD (Association for Advertisers), Meriç Demiray from SENDER (Association for Scriptwriters) and director Zeynep Günay Tan commented on where to start to enable gender equality in the sector of TV series.

The meeting led by TÜSİAD revealed that there were many more stereotypes to discuss and many steps to take forward.

The post Media Will Be Changed by Organized Struggle of All Stakeholders appeared first on Sivil Sayfalar.