Yerel internet haberciliğinde çevre haberleri incelemesi: Enerji haberleri üzerine çalışma

Defined by Turkish public as "Anatolian press" or "provincial press", local press includes an understanding of journalism, which is able to convey the issues of the region, effectively relay the economic, political, social and cultural developments there and form a public opinion. Local press also feeds national press by relaying a notion or an event in the region to the country in general. Also the memory of the region in question, local press is able to closely follow whether or not the local administration in the region fulfills the demands and wishes of the local people, in addition to having access to more details by placing emphasis on the notions or events in its own region and covering said details in news stories, thus helping local people have further access to information regarding their environment. As such, local press ensures the establishment of the culture of democracy, vitalizing the country's democracy too. The press also determines and shapes the behavior, attitude or opinions of people, who are influenced by the information or knowledge that is produced by the press. Therefore, the press undertakes a significant responsibility towards the public and the press with such social responsibility must relay accurate information to the society and ensure social development. The ideas and interests of the ruling class in the society is always prioritized. With respect to the political economy, the ruling class that has the material means of production also has control of the means of intellectual production. Within the scope of a political economy approach, the press injects the ideology of those, who support it financially, to the target audience. Controlled by the ruling ideology, the press is a means that produces commodities with the function of spreading this ideology. As such a means, the press reveals the ideological structure of the ruling class, especially in news regarding energy; however, such news that are served through internet journalism in local press often emphasize negative factors for the region and the local people, besides the positive factors and even more so. Thus, local press paves the way for the advancing of democracy by taking into consideration public interest. This study focuses on the approach of internet journalism towards energy news in local press within the framework of environmental news and the factors that influence news content. Interviews were conducted with local media representatives, selected from regions, where energy investments are intensive and these investments were ill-received by the public, regarding the approach of internet journalism in local press and the relevant issues. The responses were later assessed within a theoretical framework.