Reviewing the Relationship Between Democracy and Data Journalism Practices in Turkey

Öz

Large data stacks that emerged with digitalisation, which could not be processed in a reasonable time with existing software or human resources, have the potential to develop democracy by transforming people’s approach to world affairs. However, there is a need for data journalists as “digital watchdogs” (Felle, 2015; 2016) that will make sense of the data and reveal the stories hidden in it for public good. The discussion of big data in the context of journalism started with the Wikileaks in 2010. Data journalism has come to the fore as a new practice covering the stages of cleaning, editing, visualising, processing and contextualising data. Investigative data journalism, which seeks to “find what is hidden in the shadows” based on informal/confidential data, and to find the relationships in it, is emphasised as an important tool of democracy. The study discusses this function of data journalism in Turkish context. In-depth interviews with data journalists have been made, along with the examination of content and technical characteristics of the projects applied from Turkey to the Global Editors Network’s Data Journalism Awards. The findings show that data journalism is mostly practised by small-scale and alternative newsrooms, with a human rights-based perspective. However, time shortage and the pressure of preparing publishable stories, prevent journalists from practising accountability journalism. Other obstacles to data journalism to fulfil its democratising potential are; media institutions do not invest in data journalism, accessing reliable data is difficult, professional collaboration is limited, and crowdsourcing for funding and/or news making is not applicable..

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Data journalism
• transparency
• democratisation
• accountability
• open society

Türkiye Örnekleminde Veri Gazeteciliği Uygulamaları ve Demokrasi İlişkisi Üzerine Bir Değerlendirm

Öz

Dijitalleşmeyle birlikte ortaya çıkan, mevcut yazılımlar veya insan kaynağıyla makul sürelerde işlenemeyen büyük veri yığınları, insanların dünya meselelerine yaklaşımını dönüştürerek demokrasiyi geliştirme potansiyelini barındırmaktadır. Ancak bunun için, veriyi anlamlandıracak, içinde saklanan hikâyeleri kamu yararına ortaya çıkaracak “dijital bekçi köpekleri” (Felle, 2015; 2016) olarak veri gazetecilerine ihtiyaç vardır. Büyük verinin gazetecilik bağlamında tartışılması 2010’daki Wikileaks sızıntısıyla başlamıştır. Veriyi temizleme, düzenleme, görselleştirme, işleme ve ilişkilendirme aşamalarını kapsayan yeni bir pratik olarak veri gazeteciliği öne çıkmıştır. Özellikle gayrı resmi/gizli verilerden hareketle ‘gölgelerde saklı olanı’ arayan, veriyi sorgulayıp içindeki ilişkileri bulmayı içeren araştırmacı veri gazeteciliği, demokrasinin önemli bir aracı olarak vurgulanmaktadır. Araştırma, veri gazeteciliğinin bu işlevini Türkiye örneklemindeki uygulama bağlamında tartışmaktadır. Betimsel araştırma yöntemi ile yapılan çalışmada derinlemesine görüşme ve içerik analizi teknikleri kullanılmıştır. Bu doğrultuda, veri projesi üretimine dâhil olmuş gazetecilerle derinlemesine görüşmeler yapılmış, ayrıca Global Editors Network tarafından düzenlenen veri gazeteciliği ödüllerine Türkiye’den başvuran projelerin içerik ve teknik özellikleri incelenmiştir. Araştırma bulguları, veri gazeteciliğinin çoğunlukla küçük ölçekli ve alternatif haber merkezleri tarafından, daha çok hak odaklı perspektifle yapılan bir pratik olduğunu göstermektedir. Ancak yayınlanabilir konulara yönelme baskısı ve zamansızlık, yapılanı ‘hesap soran’ bir gazetecilik olmaktan uzaklaştırmaktadır. Türkiye örnekleminde veri gazeteciliğinin demokratikleştirici potansiyelini gerçekleştirmesinin önündeki diğer engeller olarak, medyanın henüz veri gazeteciliğine yatırım yapmaması, güvenilir veriye erişilememesi, mesleki işbirliğinin kısıtlılığı, yurttaş katılımlı alternatif fonlama ve haber üretme mekanizmalarının gerçekleştirilememesi sayılabilir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Veri gazeteciliği
• şeffaflık
• demokratikleşme
• hesap sorulabilirlik
• açık toplum

Kaynakça

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