Labour policies in the new capitalism and their traces in media work: A study of journalists

The main theme of this study is the extent to which the new capitalism has destroyed the morphological structure of labour, which is what current production practices represent, and what kind of difficulties and problems arise in the working conditions of journalists working in the media industry. The study is based on three main sections. The first part examines, within a holistic approach, how the dominant production approach of the new capitalism imprisons labour in a regime of insecurity, deprives it of social guarantees and eliminates processes based on long-term employment, thus rendering the practices of organised trade union struggle futile. The second part of the study focuses on the historical development of global communication policies and examines the processes of change and transformation in the media industry as a result of monopolisation and concentration in the political economy of global communication. Finally, the third part analyses the problems and experiences of journalists working in the media industry within the framework of the phenomenological approach of the qualitative method. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with a total of 26 journalists working in print media in Ankara, Istanbul, Kocaeli and Eskişehir. The study found that journalists work in precarious conditions, live under the risk of losing their jobs at any time, are unable to engage in organised struggle, that the profession has become worthless with the development of technology and that the decline in employment in the sector has accelerated. The study also found that because journalists have difficult working conditions, are forced to work long hours for low pay and have no future in the profession, new journalists are leaving the profession and those already working are looking for alternative jobs.