Prekar Gençliğin YouTube’daki Yansımaları: 49W Üzerinden Alternatif Bir Siyasal İfade Alanı

Öz

Amaç: Bu çalışma, Türkiye’de giderek genişleyen prekarya sınıfına mensup gençlerin dijital medyada geliştirdikleri siyasal ifade biçimlerini, 49W adlı YouTube kanalı üzerinden incelemektedir.

Yöntem: Niteliksel söylem çözümlemesi, duygu analizi, sosyal ağ haritalaması ve derinlemesine görüşme tekniklerini içeren çok yöntemli tasarımıyla çalışma, gençlerin geleneksel medyaya olan güvensizliklerini, alternatif bilgi kaynaklarına yönelimlerini ve “temiz” anlatıcılara duydukları güveni ele almaktadır. Araştırma kapsamında 345 videodan elde edilen 118.473 YouTube yorumu analiz edilmiş; kanalın kurgusu, yorumlardaki tematik yoğunluklar ve duygulanımsal tepkiler ayrıntılı şekilde haritalanmıştır. Ayrıca kanalın içerik üreticilerinden Abdülvahit Gezer’le görüşme, platformun politik konumlanışını, anlatıcı figürünün tasarımını ve algoritmik görünürlükle baş etme stratejilerini anlamada derinlikli içgörüler sunmuştur.

Bulgular: Elde edilen bulgular, 49W’nin açıklayıcı gazetecilik formunu benimsediğini, “temiz yüz” figürleri aracılığıyla medya güvenini yeniden inşa ettiğini ve gençlerin siyasal rezonansını etkileyen duygulanımsal bağlar kurduğunu ortaya koymaktadır.

Sonuç: Bu yönüyle çalışma, genç prekaryanın dijital kamusal alandaki sesini, medya krizine karşı geliştirdiği alternatif anlatı stratejilerini ve politik aidiyet arayışını anlamaya katkı sunmaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Gençlik çalışmaları
• medya çalışmaları
• prekarya
• açıklayıcı gazetecilik
• haberden kaçınma

Reflections of Precarious Youth on YouTube: An Alternative Political Expression Space Through 49W

Öz

Aim: This study examines the forms of political expression developed by young people belonging to the expanding precariat class in Turkey through the YouTube channel called 49W.

Methods: Using a multi-method design that includes qualitative discourse analysis, sentiment analysis, social network mapping, and in-depth interviews, the study addresses young people’s distrust of traditional media, their turn to alternative sources of information, and their trust in “clean” narrators. Within the scope of the research, 118,473 YouTube comments from 345 videos were analyzed; the channel’s narrative structure, thematic concentrations in comments, and affective responses were mapped in detail. In addition, an interview with one of the channel’s content creators, Abdülvahit Gezer, provided in-depth insights into the platform’s political positioning, the design of the narrator figure, and strategies for coping with algorithmic visibility.

Results: The findings reveal that 49W adopts an explanatory journalism form, rebuilds media trust through “clean face” figures, and establishes affective bonds that influence the political resonance of young people.

Conclusion: In this respect, the study contributes to understanding the voice of the young precariat in the digital public sphere, the alternative narrative strategies they develop in response to the media crisis, and their search for political belonging.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Youth studies
• media studies
• precariat
• explanatory journalism
• news avoidance

Kaynakça

1. ADIGUZEL, M. (2021). Türkiye’de genç işsizliği etkileyen faktörler. Econharran, 5(8), 100–129.
2. AKYUZ, S. S., & AKPINAR, G. (2023). Sosyal medyada enformasyon yoğunluğu ve haberden kaçınma davranışları üzerine bir araştırma. Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi İletişim Araştırmaları Dergisi, 13(1), 1–22.
3. BAYM, G. (2005). The Daily Show: Discursive integration and the reinvention of political journalism. Political communication, 22(3), 259-276. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584600591006492
4. BAZELEY, P. (2013). Qualitative data analysis: Practical strategies. SAGE.
5. BENNETT, W. L., & SEGERBERG, A. (2012). The logic of connective action. Information, Communication & Society, 15(5), 739–768. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2012.670661
6. CHADWICK, A., DENNIS, J., & SMITH, A. P. (2015). Politics in the age of hybrid media: Power, systems, and media logics. In The Routledge companion to social media and politics (pp. 7-22). Routledge.
7. COSKUN, N. (2021). Genç nüfusta işsizlik histerisinin sınanması: Türkiye örneği. Bulletin of Economic Theory and Analysis, 6(1), 97–112.
8. COULDRY, N. (2000). The place of media power: Pilgrims and witnesses of the media age. Routledge.

9. DOM, Ö. Ö., & BINGOL, Y. (2021). Political participation of youth in Turkey: Social media as a motivation. İnsan ve Toplum Bilimleri Araştırmaları Dergisi, 10(1), 605-625. https://doi.org/10.15869/itobiad.804311
10. ESEN, B., GUMUSCU, S., & YAVUZYILMAZ, H. (2023). Competitive yet unfair: May 2023 elections and authoritarian resilience in Turkey. South European Society and Politics, 28(3), 359-387. https://doi.org/10.1080/13608746.2024.2327778
11. FAIRCLOUGH, N. (1995). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. Longman.
12. HALL, S. (1997). Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices. Sage.
13. HART, R. P., & HARTELIUS, E. J. (2007). The political sins of Jon Stewart. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 24(3), 263-272. https://doi.org/10.1080/07393180701520991
14. KAYA, R., & CAKMUR, B. (2010). Politics and the mass media in Turkey. Turkish Studies, 11(4), 521-537. https://doi.org/10.1080/14683849.2010.540112
15. KOHRING, M., & MATTHES, J. (2007). Trust in News Media: Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Scale. Communication Research, 34(2), 231-252. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650206298071
16. JENKINS, H., SHRESTHOVA, S., GAMBER-THOMPSON, L., KLIGLER-VILENCHIK, N., & ZIMMERMAN, A. (2016). By any media necessary: The new youth activism. New York University Press.
17. JONES, J. P., & BAYM, G. (2010). A dialogue on satire news and the crisis of truth in postmodern political television. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 34(3), 278-294. https://doi.org/10.1177/0196859910373654
18. LEWIS, S. C., & USHER, N. (2017). Code, collaboration, and the future of journalism: A case study of the Hacks/Hackers global network. In The Future of Journalism: In an Age of Digital Media and Economic Uncertainty (pp. 129-139). Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2014.895504
19. LOREY, I. (2015). State of insecurity: Government of the precarious. Verso Books.
20. MARAL, M., YILDIZ, F., & ALPAYDIN, Y. (2021). Türkiye’de yüksek öğretim harcamaları ve genç işsizliği ilişkisi üzerine bir analiz. Journal of Economic Policy Researches, 8(2), 173–197. https://doi.org/10.26650/JEPR.907984
21. MOLYNEUX, L., & CODDINGTON, M. (2020). Aggregation, clickbait and their effect on perceptions of journalistic credibility and quality. Journalism Practice, 14(4), 429-446. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2019.1628658
22. MOUFFE, C. (2013). Agonistics: Thinking the world politically. Verso.
23. ÖZTORNACI, E. (2024). Genç İşsizliği ve Dijitalleşme İlişkisi. İzmir İktisat Dergisi, 39(1), 256-274.
24. NEWMAN, N., FLETCHER, R., ROBERTSON, C. T., ROSS ARGUEDAS, A., & NIELSEN, R. K. (2024). Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
25. PAPACHARISSI, Z. (2014). Affective publics: Sentiment, technology, and politics. Oxford University Press.
26. PALA, S., & BILEN, M. K. (2024). Dijital çağda habere karşı aktif bir direniş: Haber yorgunluğu ve haberden kaçınma. İletişim Bilimi Araştırmaları Dergisi, 4(2), 180–193.
27. PENNINGTON, J., SOCHER, R., & MANNING, C. D. (2014). GloVe: Global vectors for word representation. In Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (pp. 1532–1543).
28. ROGERS, R. (2013). Digital methods. MIT Press.
29. SILVERSTONE, R. (2013). Media and morality: On the rise of the mediapolis. John Wiley & Sons.
30. STANDING, G. (2011). The precariat: The new dangerous class. Bloomsbury Academic.
31. TOLSON, A. (2001). Being yourself': the pursuit of authentic celebrity. Discourse studies, 3(4), 443-457.
32. TSFATI, Y., & CAPELLA, J. N. (2003). Do People Watch what they Do Not Trust? Exploring the Association between News Media Skepticism and Exposure. Communication Research, 30(5), 504-529. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650203253371
33. TÜİK. (2025, Temmuz 18). İşgücü Piyasasında Gençler, 2024. Haber Bülteni Sayı 57941. Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu. https://data.tuik.gov.tr/Bulten/Index?p=Isgucu-Piyasasinda-Gencler-2024-57941
34. URAL, H., CAN-MOLLAER, E., & OKAN, C. (2023). Media representations of young people during pandemic times in Turkey. Journal of Youth Studies, 26(6), 752–767. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2022.2039601
35. UZUNOGLU, S. (2025). Digital Voices, Discursive Power: The Siege of Turkey’s Digital News Media by Interpretive Journalism. Electronic News, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/19312431251342809
36. VAN DIJCK, J., POELL, T., & DE WAAL, M. (2018). The platform society: Public values in a connective world. Oxford university press.
37. YABANCI, B. (2021). Work for the nation, obey the state, praise the ummah: Turkey’s government-oriented youth organizations in cultivating a new nation. Ethnopolitics, 20(4), 467-499. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449057.2019.1676536
38. YANARDAGOGLU, E. (2021). ‘Just the way my generation reads the news’: News consumption habits of youth in Turkey and the UK. Global Media and Communication, 17(2), 149–166. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742766520979729
39. YAVAS, H. K. (2021). Türkiye’de genç kadın işsizliği ve işgücü politikaları. Çalışma ve Toplum, 1(68), 151–180.
40. YESIL, B. (2016). Media in New Turkey: The Origins of an Authoritarian Neoliberal State. University of Illinois Press.
41. YESIL, B. (2018). Authoritarian turn or continuity? Governance of media through capture and discipline in the AKP era. South European Society and Politics, 23(2), 239–257. https://doi.org/10.1080/13608746.2018.1487137
42. YILDIZGORUR, M. R. (2023). ‘Ne önemi var?’ Okuyucuların haberden kaçınma davranışları üzerine nitel bir araştırma. Etkileşim, 11, 266–290. https://doi.org/10.32739/etkilesim.2023.6.11.197
43. ZELIZER, B. (1992). Covering the body: The Kennedy assassination, the media, and the shaping of collective memory. University of Chicago Press.