Restructuring of the Media System and New Media Convergence

Abstract

In the aftermath of the Gezi protests and the 2015 elections, hundreds of media workers were laid off, and there was also a media purge in the aftermath of the coup attempt on 15 July 2016. The Doğan Media Group, which was once the strongest media group in both market share and influence, sold its assets to the pro-government Demirören Group in 2018, marking the end of mainstream media—and increased media capture. In the post-2015 media environment, a number of native digital platforms—news portals, citizen-based initiatives, social enterprises, news academies established by professional organisations, freelance journalists and civil society organisations—constituted the emerging media scene, especially among the oppositional media. In the period to date, there has been growth in media supported by international non-governmental organisations or embassies’ grant programmes. This chapter reviews these developments and explores whether new forms of convergence may indeed be a solution for the problems in the Turkish media system. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.