Media policies in Turkey: The political economy of ownership and control relationships that changed between 2002 and 2020

Given the emergence of the press across the World, it is known that it lately entered daily life in Turkey. The efforts that began during the Ottoman Empire era continued during the Republican period and the desire to keep the press under control owing to the press's impact on social life has persisted since its inception. The press was viewed as a propaganda tool of the state throughout the single-party time, and this continued until the multi-party period. During the multi-party period, steps were taken regarding the freedom of the press, but this resulted in the rise of new types of control. Although it acquired power from time to time in Turkey until 1980, this power did not gain continuity, and the press underwent a substantial transition in the 1990s with the shifting type of economic organization. That period, characterized as the shift from press to media, had resulted in the formation of a far more complicated structure. It had also entered a period in which capital is powerful in the media, and the ways of controlling the media have evolved as a consequence of this. This study examined the ownership changes in media between 2002 and 2020 and the reflections of these changes on the working lives of journalists. In this context, the theoretical framework was initially established and the ownership transition in Turkish media was analyzed taking this theoretical framework as a reference. It was found that the ownership and control relations that emerged throughout the historical process examined in the study are associated with the period's political, economic, and social conditions. Also, interviews with twenty-two journalists who worked in the media during the studied period were done in the study to reveal the extent to which the changes and ownership transitions over the studied period are reflected on the working relations and practices of journalists. As a result of the research, it was found out that media transition impacts the working lives of journalists. The changes and transitions experienced in Turkish media were addressed holistically in the study using a literature review, historical method, and phenomenological approach. Keywords: Political Economy, Media Policies, AK Party, Mainstream Media, Labor Relations.