Bourdieu and new media elite: Influencers and journalists

In this study, the practices of being influential, which are accepted to have the power to influence and direct social media audiences in Turkey, are analyzed with Bourdieu's conceptual tools, and the symbolic counterpart of the influential on the society is examined, taking into account the similarities and differences between the symbolic elites of the traditional media and the traditional media. For this purpose, Danla Bilic, Enes Batur, Reynmen, Sude Alkış and Damla Altun were determined as the influential part of the sample, and Ece Vahapoğlu, Seda Akgül, Ayşe Arman, Cüneyt Özdemir and Murat Güloğlu for the journalists section. All digital traces of the people in the sample and the data collected from their accounts on online platforms were subjected to qualitative content analysis. As a result of the qualitative content analysis, it was determined that the influential were not included in a new elite type. However, when interpreted with Bourdieu's concept of habitus, the loss of dominance of "symbolic elites" in objective relations, market relations and relations with power in online platforms indicates that habitus will renew itself and give birth to a new elite type suitable for the conditions. Based on the symbolic power gained by the influential, it has been seen that the habitus can evolve into a new type of elite built through taste. It is thought that the most important candidate of this new elite type is the influentials.