A Comparative Research Between Italian and Turkish Journalists
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SGOXXX10.1177/21582440211010173SAGE OpenSimaku 1010173research-article20212021 Original Research SAGE Open April-June 2021: 1 –10 A Comparative Research Between Italian © The Author(s) 2021 https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211010173DOI: 10.1177/21582440211010173 and Turkish Journalists: Professionalism, journals.sagepub.com/home/sgo Autonomy, Clientelism, and Ethic Xheni Simaku1 Abstract The global society which we live in nowadays makes us rethink about media system, global dynamics, and the operation of the influences that these dynamics have on national media systems. Starting from the book by Hallin and Mancini’s (2004) Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics, and under the Polarized Pluralist Model they proposed, the aim of this work is to compare Turkish and Italian journalists’ professionalization. This research has been conducted under the concept of professionalization that these authors suggested in their work and, more specifically, under the Polarized Pluralist Model, in which Hallin and Mancini recognize countries like Italy have the main characteristics described by the model; Turkey can also be included. The main goal of this work is to underline not only the similarities but also the differences that are encountered in these two countries in the journalistic professionalization. The methodology used is in-depth interviews with 10 journalists: five Italian and five Turkish journalists chosen from the biggest journals in their respective countries. Main topics taken into consideration were autonomy, clientelism, and professionalization in journalism based on ethics values. Even if the Polarized Pluralist Model seems to fit in both countries from a macro perspective, with the in-depth interviews, it is clearly seen that different cross-national nuances come out. Keywords cross-national research, Polarized Pluralist Model, journalism, professionalization, ethics Introduction professionalization by discussing whether national policies are still important in a globalized world. The globalization phenomenon is one of the most discussed As asserted before, the worldwide dimension of globaliza- topics of the 21st century. The more comprehensive this phe- tion phenomenon, which has been discussed by many schol- nomenon is, the more difficult its definition and delineation ars (Beck, 2003; Cerny, 1996; Giddens, 2005; Hardt & Negri, get. As Baumann (1998) would describe it, “elusive and liq- 2000; Held et al., 2005; Hirst & Thompson, 1999; Kellner, uid” makes us think of a very vague and changeable term. 2002; Modelski, 2005; Ritzer, 2007; Robertson, 1992; Nowadays, globalization is a visible phenomenon and is Thompson, 1995; Tomlison, 2001), gives us, in this research, rooted in all scientific and sectorial fields just as all the an inclusive approach that helps compare journalists’ profes- other sciences. Social sciences were also affected by it. sionalization in two different countries and is useful for reach- Globalization has created a big discussion among different ing out to a clear schema of how deep globalization has gone, academics and scholars who take a position regarding this if it has really gone deep. The professionalization taken in the phenomenon. Globalization has created three movements: example here is the one used by Hallin and Mancini (2004) in skeptical, supporters, and transformalist thinkers (Held & their book Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of McGrew, 2005). Media and Politics. It is from their book that the idea of com- Apart from a horizontal effect, globalization also claims paring Italy and Turkey born because the authors compare 18 a vertical effect, so it not only gets wide, but it also goes in countries by dividing them into three groups and creating depth within various fields. Starting from this kind of common characteristics models. The case of Italy is already approach, this work tries to observe and research how deeply globalization phenomenon is rooted in the Italian and Turkish journalistic sector, and in specific, in the professionalization 1Istanbul Commerce University, Turkey of journalists, which is a term that is explained properly by Corresponding Author: Hallin and Mancini (2004) and which has been taken as Xheni Simaku, Istanbul Commerce University, Istanbul, Turkey. an example to compare Italian and Turkish journalists’ Email: [email protected] Creative Commons CC BY: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). 2 SAGE Open present in the model named “Polarized Pluralist Model,” worst. For John Locke (1974, 1993), comparison is the whereas the Turkish case seems to have all the necessary foundation and origin of all mathematical procedures and requirements to be included in the same model. Turkey every demonstration and certainty. According to Hegel seems particularly close to the Polarized Pluralist Model (1999), comparison is a passage from equality to inequality, because of the historical characteristics that Turkey has com- from similarity to difference and vice versa, in line with pared with the other countries under the model, and in spe- thesis–antithesis process, which is the basis of much of his cific, with Italy. Instances of these characteristics would be philosophy. Lasswell (1968) equates the scientific method late democratization of the country, the structure of media to the comparative one because, for him, the scientific market and the historical development of media which is method is inevitably compared. Eisenstadt (1969, p.8) very low in those countries, the parallelism of media system argues that comparison is not a method on itself, but rather with the politics, the development of journalistic profession- “a special focus on macro-dimensional, interdimensional, alism which is very low in these countries compared with the and institutional aspects of the society and its social analy- other models, and the degree of how much the state interven- sis.” Here we can see a change of the analysis; the focus tion is in media system. Therefore, this work starts with the moved from the method for the analysis to its content. comparison of two countries that apparently seem to have Giovanni Sartori (1971) argues that the comparison is a many things in common and to have similar variables; it then control method for generalization, deduction, or view type continues by adding the globalization factor where a deeper “if . then.” Kohn (1987, p. 17), while speaking about com- similarity between the dynamics studied in these two coun- parative research, expresses himself in these words: “I think tries is expected. In analyzing the media systems of these that there is much to be gained from investigating whether countries, the authors refer to four variables, one of which is what we learn from research in any one country holds true in professionalization. Professionalization is one of the catego- other countries as well.” He continues by asserting that ries utilized in their three media system models with which cross-national research is indispensable for the establishment they divide North America, North Europe, and South Europe. of the generality of findings and the validity of analysis that In this article, professionalism linked to ethics is analyzed can be seen in single-nation studies. In his opinion, cross- using in-depth interviews with five Italian and five Turkish national research is valuable because it forces us to develop journalists. The interviews have three main dimensions. The our interpretations of cross-national differences, inconsisten- first one is professionalism; the second one is clientelism; cies, and variables that could never be noticed in a single- and the third one is autonomy. The journalists interviewed in nation study. Form asserts that (cross-national) comparative this article were chosen by the base of the circulation copies sociology is probably one of the fields with more method- of the newspapers and by the base of the ideological points of ological advice on a small database (Form, 1979). Esser’s view of the newspapers they worked for, so as to have a more (2013) point of view on comparative research in communica- balanced comparison among the journalists. tion and media studies contrasts different macro-level cases at one or more points at a time. The necessity for more pre- Comparative Research cise and reliable comparisons is indispensable for the politi- cal and the economic reality which are driving forces behind The comparative research of this article is indispensable not the demand for more cross-national comparisons and they only because the theory taken in consideration was the Hallin are often needed to be applied to specific problems. and Mancini’s one that authors attach extreme importance to The comparative analysis has given us the possibility to comparative research, especially to the cross-national research, notice new things that we had not observed before, and with but also because by comparing, a notion can be understood. As that assist, a new concept has come out by forcing us to clar- Durkheim (1965) affirms, if we want to analyze whether a ify the extension and applicability of those concepts (Hallin phenomenon is the cause of another, we do it by comparing