Covering Environment and Climate Change in Turkey: Transformative Journalisms Face Competitive Authoritarianism
Journalism Studies, cilt.26, sa.4, ss.485-502, 2025 (SSCI, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 26 Sayı: 4
- Basım Tarihi: 2025
- Doi Numarası: 10.1080/1461670x.2024.2438994
- Dergi Adı: Journalism Studies
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, American History and Life, ComAbstracts, Communication Abstracts, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Public Affairs Index
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.485-502
- Anahtar Kelimeler: Climate journalism, advocacy, climate change, polarization, authoritarianism, Turkey
- Kırklareli Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
As the climate crisis deepens, journalistic interventions aimed at engaging citizens with news that raises public awareness and promotes climate solutions are gaining significance throughout the globe. Drawing on the conceptual framework of transformative journalisms, this study focuses on professional discourses, practices, emotions, and challenges of climate journalists in Turkey to improve our understanding of their operations in a highly polarized and oppressive political atmosphere. The research is based on qualitative, in-depth interviews with 21 journalists from different regions of Turkey who identified as climate journalists or environmental journalists prioritizing the climate crisis. The findings suggest that journalists go beyond solely reporting on climate science and undertake the mission of advocacy for the transformation toward ecological sustainability despite constant political oppression, financial restraints, and polarization traps. Although inspiring hardly any policy change under the circumstances demotivates the journalists, niche outlets invest in raising community-level awareness of climate change and forging broad alliances with local journalists, actors of environmental movements, and civil society, keeping hopes alive for bottom-up transformation. The most urgent needs are dedicated training programs for emergent journalists, generating sustainable income models, and challenging the discourse of pro-government media through local stories with a climate angle.