Readers' representative practices in local newspaper: The case of Sakarya local newspapers

Ombudsmanship system is wide spreading both in Turkey and around the globe. It is a system, which raises the compliancy of professional and ethical principles in press and maintains the communication between the newspaper and the reader through a higher quality of journalism practices. Ombudsmanship is a system where readers can share their critiques along with their expectancies and defined under various different names. Although the mentioned concept is generally named as ombudsman in journalism, it is mostly defined as readers' representative. In this research, the term readers' representative is taken as the focus point. Readers' representation system, a self-control mechanism is a two way communication built between the newspaper and its readers. The reader can criticize and share her suggestions with the readers' representation in this system that analyzes the effects of the physical features of the newspaper and its content to see if it's in accordance with the professional principles. Therefore, readers' representation system strengthens the relationship between the reader and the medium. In this thesis, readers'representation system as executed in local newspapers is the main area of research. The aim of the research is to determine all dimensions of the relationship between the readers and the local newspapers in Sakarya and suggest if readers' representation system is needed. Qualitative method and half structured interview technique is used and analyzed in context of the answers supplied by the newspapers' administrative figures. In this regard, this research is expected to add value to the practices of local journalism and readers' representation system in an academic frame. Communication practices between the local newspapers and their readers, methods for handling the review of the readers, status of the readers' representative and approach of the local newspaper administrations to the readers' representative is also presented in this work.