Problems and issues of the local journalism and media in the context of political economy theory: Based on the sample of Antalya city, Turkey

The local journalism and media play a significant role in integrating those who live far from the central part of the country. It contributes to the rooting and development of democracy in society with the bridge it builds between the ruler and the ruled and the ground for the pursuit of rights it creates for those with insufficient power. The local journalism and media have the ability and power to get some local issues on the public agenda via widespread media coverage. However, the local journalism and media in our country seem to be far from this ideal structure and power. The local journalism and media, whose primary aim should be the public interest, have serious problems with issues such as freedom, censorship, self-censorship, economic inadequacies, personal rights of journalists, merit, education, trust, acceptance and the property structure. Furthermore, the local journalism and media are widely used for personal interests of its owner, advertisements and promotions are presented like news and the politicians realize the significance of it only during election times so in order for the local press to transform from such a corrupt structure to a structure of genuine and pure journalism, serious steps and measures should be taken for a solution by considering all the related problems as a whole, particularly the problem of economic independence. In this study, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 32 journalists working in Antalya, one of the largest cities in Turkey, in order to address all these problems of the local press in the context of Critical Political Economy. The results obtained from these interviews are analyzed using the descriptive analysis technique. According to the findings at the end of the research, the problems experienced by the local media are explained in 12 separate topics related to each other. Keywords: Local press, News, Ethics, Economic Political Theory, Media