Spatial transition's effects on journalism practices in Istanbul journalism

Turkish journalism in Istanbul operated in and around the Babiali district from the 1830s to the early 1990s. The 160-year history of journalism developed in the region, which is traditionally the administrative, economic, social and cultural centre of the city, can also be defined as the history of an experience intertwined with news source institutions, professional circles and socialisation spaces. However, Babiali lost its feature of being the centre of journalism with the spatial change experienced in the 1990s, and the media plaza period began in Istanbul journalism. The media plaza period, which developed in parallel with the "Industrialization of the Press" and "Transformation from the Press to the Media" processes, had significant effects on the journalism practices and professional culture shaped by the spatial history of Istanbul journalism around the Babiali. In the studies carried out so far, the rapid transformation that took place in the Turkish press between 1980 and 2000 has been examined with its political, economic and technological dimensions, but the spatial change and its effects on journalism practices have not been studied. The aim of this study is to question the changes that take place in the news production processes together with the spatial change, after revealing the reflections of the relations that Babiali journalism established with the spatial environment on the journalism practices. In this context, data were collected by conducting in-depth interviews with journalists who experienced the spatial change process in question. Based on the collected data, the research part of the study was built on five themes: "Dynamics Triggering the Spatial Change Process", "The Effect of the Media Plaza Process on News Production", "The Effect of the Media Plaza Process on the Communication of Journalists with Each Other", "Technological Developments and Journalism in the Media Plaza Process" and "The Second Dimension of Spatial Change: Returning to the City Centre After the 2000s".By analysing the collected data, it can be claimed that the spatial change process in Istanbul journalism has led to important results such as distance from the city centre and the public, dependence on news agencies, similarity in news in different newspapers, the decrease in the importance of reporting and the disintegration of the community structure that formed within the professional circle in Babiali, which contributed to the awareness of belonging to the profession.