Transformation of Medium

Baldini’s Revolution of Communication

- Verbal Communication Typographic Communication

- Written Communication Electronic Communication

The path of revolution is not always a straight line. For Example Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

According to Massimo Baldini when a communication form becomes conservative or starts to be

owned by a certain group or zeal, a new communication form emerges. Same thought can apply
to media history and its mediums. According to McLuhan, the medium in which people
communicate with each other directly or indirectly influences their way of thinking. Even thinkers
who are not technological determinists like McLuhan think that medium is an important aspect of
transformation.

Another point that should be considered when talking about the information revolution is the fact
that the medium should not become a subject that is shielding social problems. While we are
talking about technology, speed and communication methods, one fifth of the world's population
lives away from human conditions. For this reason alone journalism is perhaps becoming more
important nowadays. The notion of discourse, not of the medium, for example allows one to pay
attention to imbalances in production and working conditions. The age of information is not an
era in which all the needs of humanity are addressed.

Verbal Communication
Verbal communication is the first shape of communication for humanity. At the same time it is the
most basic form of communication. Media as we know today does not fit with verbal
communication, but as a medium it is still powerful as in ancient times.

Characteristics of Verbal Communication: Ear is the most important organ. Verbal communication
keeps the sentence structure superior. Verbal communication uses exaggeration. Verbal
communication prefers competitions. It is conservative and traditional. It is excessive and
interactive. It is a homeostatic culture. People tend to think more thematic than abstract.

When Plato establishes his utopian ‘State’, he places the Philosopher King in power. According to
Plato, the Philosopher King is the only one who has access to true knowledge. According to
Plato, there should be no written laws in order for the Philosopher King to have a comfortable
ruling of the polis. According to this concept, the legality of verbal law, says that the written laws
restrict only the effectiveness of the Philosopher king. Because laws are very general and do not
work according to the situation. According to Plato, there is a difference between the tyrant and
the Philosopher king. Tyrant uses a situation for his own good on the other hand Philosopher King
uses a situation for the sake of the people. But this view has no concrete basis. For the dictators
and tyrants in the history of mankind, this thought has been an important source of legitimacy.
Corrosion of Verbal Communication: According to Baldini after some point verbal
communication started to controlled by religious leaders or shamans etc. To be able to do want
they want and not belong to any kind of structure made them corrupt. Even written
communication do not change authority at least it made them to respect some kind of law or
code. It is similar to transition from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy.

Written Communication
Just like reason for many of the phenomenon in the World history, writing had came from
economical needs. For effective tax collection and registration writing started with simple signs,
then more complicated tools such as the alphabet. Memory serve its purpose and loses its
importance. Eye, ear and reading.The narrative of ideas become more analytic, more abstract and
less systematic. Results of written communication are: Philosophy, science, logic and Ethics were
born. Birth of ‘Me’. Transformation of poet to artist. Replacement of heroes to normal human
beings.

Corrosion of Written Communication: Just like verbal communication, written communication

also became conservative after a while. And again Just like verbal communication, written
communication’s conservative state caused by its dominion by a certain group. This time instead
of shamans control maintained by organized religion. If we talk about Europe this control belong
to Popehood. Illiteracy deliberately keep high and education was a privilege to upper class (Is it a
problem in nowadays?). Language of public and language of writing separated (Latin –European
language, Ottoman – Turkish) so that people who do not get education by authority, stripped their
right to read and write. Typographic Communication both equals the language of public and
language of writing also creates a education.

Typographic Communication
Plagiarism becomes a crime, Word becomes a commercial property and public becomes new
protector of art. Written culture is about writing your own thoughts and experiences but in written
culture writing is more important that thoughts. At the same time, it is very common to write
books without signatures in written culture. Writer gains its identity through printing and printer
become businessman/woman. In typographic culture publishing a book is not just about
spreading knowledge. In written culture making copy a book is considered a cause of praise, in
typographic culture it is a crime. In written culture commercialization of book considered shame,
in typographic culture it is a right.

Reading getting quieter and widespread and become both personal and public phenomenon.
Written culture was generally a voice-reading period. It was a period of neither punctuation nor
capital letters. Because of this reading is like decryption so people read loudly in front of
audience. In written culture because there is only one copy of each book you have to be in right
place and you have to be from right class. Typographic culture removes these requirements. At
the same time punctuation nor capital letters personalized the reading.

Results are: Books are ‘Quite Teachers’, World of learning and Teaching Changes. Book gave
birth to individualism and nations. Public libraries are built. Press, censorship and prosecution.
Keeping Journal: Result of individual life caused by printing.
Corrosion of Typographic Communication: Conservatism arises again when knowledge
maintained by a certain group. But this time in secularized societies it has maintained by
capitalism and conglomerates. The press is a phenomenon that wants to make money since the
day it was founded. But today, this desire has come to the level of destroying journalism's basic
moral values. While newspapers turn into advertisement catalogs at the same time it has begun
to evolve society into reality-oriented individuals who can not question the system. At this point,
it is useful to look at the possibilities provided by electronic communication and the Internet.

Media and Medium

Human beings want to have knowledge and wisdom throughout history. For this reason,
information has begun to spread as human history and technology evolve, to be shared by certain
people and groups. The first shared knowledge has been to make sense of the world and fear.
For this reason, the long first part of the long history of humanity (the pre-organized religion era)
was a time when clergy and shamans controlled information. First media in simplest form is to
share most basic, most common, most predictable incidents to society. In the ‘Lord of Flies'
(1954), the children who fall on the island are chose Ralph as a chief because he finds a sea shell
from which he can make a sound and collects all the children who fall on the island. In the same
book, Jack does not accept the authority of the shell, where he paints his face and hunts pigs. He
builds his own tribe. Not based on understanding but based on primal instincts.

In verbal communication the only area where information can be transmitted is human memory.
For this reason first the identity of the sender than medium of sender becomes important. In
verbal communication, the media was completely under the control of the authority. The news
was shared so that it contributes to authority. Only gossip and ‘silent news’ can question
authority in verbal communication. With founding of writing and taming animals the speed of
information has increased, the news has started to be transmitted more accurately, more clearly.
In these periods, postal centers were established to provide fast and accurate access to
information. In fact, when we look every medium till internet, it can be said that every
development help speeding up the providing information. Can it be said for accurate news? Is
speed helps accuracy?

In the Middle Ages, in Europe the fall of central authorities thus fall of central security cause
elimination the postal services. The re-emergence of the postal service was in the 15th century.
The news, just like the information, was controlled by the classes that dominated the written
culture at the time. This information can present to the public correctly or incorrectly based on
authority’s needs. The first areas of information were agoras and churches. Empire, senate,
church decisions, commercial bulletins and other information were hanged here in the first place.

In the fifteenth century, the development of printing presses in Europe would completely
transform both the medium and the system. Towards the end of the 15th century books and
occasional newspapers began to be published in Europe. In 1517, In the center of the reform
movement, we can see printing press. Printing press contribute to the transformation of authority.
(because of the printing press - because of the people who use the printing press?). In the true
sense, the birth of the periodical was found in the 17th century. The first example was the
'Nieuwe Tydinghen' which started to publish in 1605 in Netherlands. First newspapers are specific
versions of commercial bulletins. It was not in the beginning that the press became the fourth
power. When it first emerges, it has a commercial mission. With the emergence of journalism,
pressure, censorship, but at the same time false news emerged. The power of press has been
understood since the first day. This has often been the case of authority, but also sometimes
newspaper owners have used or hindered it for their own purposes. As the private partnership did
not develop and the laws were not ready, early newspapers were official (related to authority) or
semi-official newspapers. The most important country of this period is the Netherlands. The
Netherlands did not use censorship or oppression at the time because they believe that blocking
journalism as also meant blocking commercialization. Dutch journalism has also preferred to deal
with trade rather than being critical.

In the nineteenth century, newspapers began to evolve into idea newspapers through the
revolutions, ideologies and political transformations. Karl Marx believed that writing have the
power to transform. Because his thoughts were inconvenient to the authority, he was not
accepted into the academy. So he found his first writing in the Rheinische Zeitung in Cologne.
This period is also a period when newspaper closures were increased.

Censorship can be described as more than closing newspapers. The first period of censorship
involves increasing of the paper expenses and the licensing. Instead of making direct pressures
on journalists, destroying them from the beginning or bothering them economically is a less
publicized response. One advantage of the internet is that it does not need a license (at least for
now) and do not have paper or any other material costs.

In the English, French and American Revolutions it can be seen that the typographical culture
directly affected. In the British and American Revolutions, newspapers were used as a symbol of
significant resistance and propaganda. In France, the distrust against the newspapers made it
possible for the influence of the books to be stronger than the influence of the newspapers.
Especially books from thinkers like Rousseau or Voltaire. The contempt of the intellectuals against
to the newspapers in France has decreased especially after the revolution. In this period, the
notion that journalism is a force against the secrecy of the authority, and understood that it is the
fourth power.

Electronic Communication
In the mid-1800s a new and great revolution began to take place in the world of communication.
The speed of the news is the first time stripped from its technology, has gained its own pace.
Although the telegram was found by the French, it became a communication force thanks to
Morse Code. In 1844 a telegraph line was established between Washington and Baltimore. This is
considered as the first appearance of electronic communication.

McLuhan says that for the first time with the telegraph, the speed of communication exceeds the
speed of man (messenger). With railway the telegram has civilized both the uncivilized Wild West
and include it into the state establishment. Just like money separated from leather, ingot and
mines and gains its own value information also separated from stone, papyrus and paper.
Electronic communication demolish concept of time and space. McLuhan/Global Village.

Electronic communication do not only benefited the media that uses this medium directly, but it
also benefits printed newspapers. Thanks to technological developments, the number of pages of
newspapers has increased and the news market has expanded. News became a commercial
commodity. The chance to be able to create news for abroad and to be able to hear from far
away has established news agencies. News agencies are the most important mediums of
information hegemony. This hegemony is directly linked to technology.
According to technological determinists like Walter J. Ong, electronic culture has taken us to a
secondary verbal communication era. According to Ong, just like verbal communication,
electronic communication is also characterized by individual participation and social interaction.
There are certain similarities between the technological determinism and the futurism movement
that emerged in the early 2oth century. The futurist movement at the beginning of the 20th
century claimed that technology would bring humanity to ideal life.

According to Neil Postman, just like in nature, in the world of communication an important change
leads to a complete transformation (For Example: Yellowstone). Electronic communication is
actually a inclusive concept. It encompasses many different types of mediums such as telegraph,
radio, television, internet. These fields are actually similar to each other in terms of
communication and communication culture, although they have produced very different results as
mediums. It is important to note that thinkers with different views, such as McLuhan and
Postman, are put forth their thoughts about technology in a similar way but before the emergence
of the Internet. We can discuss how influential concepts like Web 2.0, Virtual reality, smartphone
applications, etc. McLuhan’s thoughts about other attributes of electronic communications need
to be evaluated on the basis of emerging technologies.

Electronic communication is also an informatic communication. According to a research we can

acquire information in one day through internet equal all the information that a farmer acquire in
his lifetime. Informatics communication, also changes the language. For example The Oxford
dictionary added word 'lol' to the dictionary in 2011.

According to Theodor Nelson just like material separation of medium and information, the text
and the information are also separated, the text has created an upper text. The term upper text
used in 60s for the first time; ‘It is a special electronic text composed from a series of text pieces
to provides readers and writers a variety of orientations thanks to connections created between
them’. Any kind of media in which different types of symbols are produced is valid for this case.
For example whatsApp dialogs. (alphabet, emoji, photo, gif, sound etc.)

The upper text has removed some of the features of typographic communication. A book is made
within inside of a definite line within certain rules. All decided methods such as Punto, color, text
type are all reflected in the text. Electronic communication on the other hand combines all means
of communication up to its time with its own communication means and provides. For this
reason, the upper text shows at least a greater dynamism, rationality, and intensity in the figure
sense than the printed work. But shredding and breaking texts destroys unity and permanence. In
this era one of the biggest question is Is there still a need for printed publications or newspapers
in a world where electronic communication is dominant? Some thinkers even in the middle of the
19th century said that the book had to be destroyed. Their argument is that the newspaper will
take the place of the book. Newspaper and books coexist together Neil Postman says that books
should not be destroyed, but that it will be done by television.

At this point we can ask whether the electronic culture will directly destroy all the features of the
typographic culture. Although music has shifted to digital, it appears that the sales of vinly have
reemerged in the electronic period. Both Retro features (nostalgia feeling), sound quality, and
serving to a special consumer have created this situation. There can be such an area for books?
According to Ong communication world has a misconception that when a new vehicle emerges, it
removes everything that already exists. Radio and television do not destroy books, on the
contrary they create benefit for them at certain points. Even new communication mediums force
the old ones. The ones that find a meaning in new eras still stand. Vinyl vs. cassette
As long as technology used by state it became part of censorship and as long as it used by
private capital it used for consumer mentality. Telegraph is the first medium for censorship to be
used systematically. Propaganda has found the purest and most effective form thanks to
technology. Especially in times of war, the combination of technology and press has left the place
of free thought to propaganda news. Every new technology has become a new propaganda door.
How can this be overcome? Does the pure competition market work?

Emergence of radio heavily affect World War periods. Now, communication has surpassed the
technology that a person can produce (as mass production). For this reason, communication
technologies are emerging as war products as well as in many technologies that will emerge from
now on. World Wars also named as radio wars. Churchill, V. George, Stalin all use radio for their
own purposes. Two examples of how much influence the radio has on social events can be
shown. Orson Welles's 'Martians Coming' show for radio in 1938 1932 Roosevelt - Hoover
American presidential election race. The American people vote for Roosevelt, whose voice they
found more 'radiogenic'.

Media and Medium

In the 1950s, research on the actions and tasks of the mass media showed that some people
oppose a certain proportion of these new technologies. According to them, the radio is like a
prison without a wall, the radio has become a very effective tool for demagogues and dictators.
At the same time, according to them, radio mimic cultures, removing differences altogether.
According to Adorno, the radio turns everyone into a listener in a democratic way while making
them listeners of the same programs published in different channels in an authoritarian way.

Nazi Germany is one of the countries that make the best use of the propaganda power of the
radio. According to Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany's propaganda minister, the main reason for
Germany's loss of the First World War is the poor use of communication. Germany was at that
time incomplete in keeping with the high morale of the soldiers on the front and producing
messages to the enemy. According to Goebbels, if the radio is used well, the regime is free from
all kinds of rebellious thought.

Although the Nazis used radio very effectively in accordance with their propaganda purposes,
they were not the only country that recognized the importance of communication means. When
Japan occupied China in the Second World War they placed loudspeakers in the squares and
shared Japanese propaganda news in Mandarin language. The Soviets and the British recognized
the propaganda fact during the war.

During this propaganda battle, the BBC put forward a more accurate understanding of
broadcasting and publishing in the light of the need to present the news not a story nor a plain
propaganda incident. This contributed to the development of the BBC's idea of ‘they make the
right news' after the war. Likewise, French resistance leader General De Gaulle was also referred
to as Mr. Microphone.

For Hitler the rallies were a theater. And in this theater, technology and communication were
crucial mediums. At Hitler's big rallies in Germany, the best sound system of the time was used.
These rallies were broadcast live on the radio and later on the cinema screen. In the cinema;
music, architectural design elements and camera angles were used to enhance the effect of
speech.
Television has been the most commonly criticized medium among the mass media by the thinkers
of its period. According to McLuhan, typographic human accepted cinema (a sense of television)
quickly. Because cinema presents an inner world filled with dreams and imagery just like books.
In other words, television's visual cultural affiliation makes McLuhan unhappy. McLuhan's
successor, Derrick de Kerckhove, tells us that television is a device that is more concerned with
the body than with the head. According to him, television has a secret fascination and the it has
power to put people sleep. This affects all of the body not just head.

Television is not only criticized by technological determinists. Postman examines the concepts of
journalism, information and entertainment in his book ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death'. According to
Postman, mass media, which should generally be based on knowledge and social development,
turned into reality with the emergence of television. Information has turned into entertainment,
thus it is no longer a knowledge. The problem here is not that people are having fun, but that the
products produced under the name of entertainment are destroying and corrupting social
perception, public space.

Many communication expert, sociologist, pedagogue, psychologist and philosopher talked about
the harms of television. Karl Popper described television as a 'bad educator' because it taught
violence to young people. For this reason, Popper defended censorship. Popper tells that this
poor quality broadcast is caused by multiple choices and extension of broadcast hours to 24
hours. Competition reduces quality. Popper says that the power of television must be restrained
in order for democracies to survive.

Another important feature of television is that it does not actually fit into Baldini's communication
revolutions. Baldini claims that when a communication diminish to a group’s control, he argues
that a 'revolutionary' more participatory communication method will emerge. But television has
never been an instrument of mass public participation. While television was a state monopoly
technology in Europe, it was introduced by direct private capital in the United States. Television
has never been the voice of the public or the community. Television is a window that opens to the
consumer, not to the world. Could this be said for the Internet?

One of the things that capitalism does well for its own sake (perhaps the greatest weakness on
the one hand) is that it can use its criticism in situations where it brings profit. Founded in 1981,
one of MTV's first hits is Dire Straights’s, "Money for Nothing," a song that strangely criticizes the
channel very seriously. After long time of being the channel for video clips with 2000s MTV turned
into a reality TV.

One of the most important problems of the television is to transform the democratic order into a
reality. Within this concept called telecracy, politics is transformed from real promises and real
problems to a show scene. It turned into an order that The one that is well seen, the one with the
more television friendly character, has become important. Your knowledge and intellectualism has
been replaced by showmanship.

There is a serious difference between performance and staging that created by television and real
politics. There's a lot of responsibility here for journalists. But this is also ignored by the
newspapers because performance and staging also has been making more money for the
newspaper. In telecratic societies many decide according to intuition, not actual political
decisions.. Bolivia 2002 general election example.

Telecracy is actually a performance for undecided voters, not really for the politically motivated
people. Although ideology age has been considered to be over with the collapse of the Soviet
Union, there have been no era that groups are this radical and this blindly defend its own
alignment. This inadequate understanding of democratic practices is directly related to the
performance and staging provided mass media. In the US, 35-38% of Trump supporters say that
whatever Trump does, they will still vote for him in the next election.

Another important concept emerging from mass media is the concept of 'spin-doctor'. This
concept can be referred to as 'a mishmash of thought that activates the views of a politician'. In
other words, this person who usually called press advisors creates images of politicans, hide real
person behind that image and prevents public from reaching the truth. Though it never tells you
what you need to hear, it produces discourse that comforts the spectator. He/she also creates
damage control.

Electronic media in capitalist countries (for ordinary times):Entertain, Console, Informs, It

surpasses values that are not added to society as a whole (beliefs and codes of conduct are
exceeded), Maintain the class values of the upper class. (one of the simplest examples is Istanbul
news).

All this and the emerging inequalities have revealed that a model of propaganda must also be
established in democratic capitalist systems. This existing model was examined by Herman and
Chomsky and tried to explain what kind of model it is. Propaganda model; it focuses on the
inequality of wealth and power, its multi-dimensional effect on the interests and choices of mass
media. The propaganda model that is established creates an elite domination over the media
while marginalizing the opposition. When taking side is objective, being objective becomes
marginal. New media in this age?

Propaganda Model Filters

Size, Ownership, and Profit Orientation: The dominant mass-media outlets are large companies
operated for profit, and therefore they must cater to the financial interests of the owners, who are
usually corporations and controlling investors. The size of a media company is a consequence of
the investment capital required for the mass-communications technology required to reach a
mass audience of viewers, listeners, and readers.

The Advertising License to Do Business: Since the majority of the revenue of major media
outlets derives from advertising (not from sales or subscriptions), advertisers have acquired a "de
facto licensing authority". Media outlets are not commercially viable without the support of
advertisers. News media must therefore cater to the political prejudices and economic desires of
their advertisers. This has weakened the working class press, for example, and also helps explain
the attrition in the number of newspapers.

Sourcing Mass Media News: Herman and Chomsky argue that “the large bureaucracies of the
powerful subsidize the mass media, and gain special access [to the news], by their contribution to
reducing the media’s costs of acquiring [...] and producing, news. The large entities that provide
this subsidy become 'routine' news sources and have privileged access to the gates. Non-routine
sources must struggle for access, and may be ignored by the arbitrary decision of the
gatekeepers.”

Flak and the Enforcers: "Flak" refers to negative responses to a media statement or program
(e.g. letters, complaints, lawsuits, or legislative actions). Flak can be expensive to the media,
either due to loss of advertising revenue, or due to the costs of legal defense or defense of the
media outlet's public image. Flak can be organized by powerful, private influence groups (e.g.
think tanks). The prospect of eliciting flak can be a deterrent to the reporting of certain kinds of
facts or opinions.

Anti-Communism: This was included as a filter in the original 1988 edition of the book, but
Chomsky argues that since the end of the Cold War (1945–91) anticommunism was replaced by
the "War on Terror" as the major social control mechanism.

Media and Medium

Today, when a violent incident is exhibited, we question the direct relationship between the
violent person and the communication means is questioned. Especially today, the connection
between computer and computer games with violence is discussed. In certain situations this
reality is true, but in certain situations it is done to conceal the problems of authority that raise
social violence. Does computer game make a person violent?

Birth of Internet
History of İnternet
The last point that electronic communication in nowadays starting with telegram is internet.
Internet with telegraph, radio and television have transformed the information completely. Even in
the day when the Internet was born, it had a more inclusive space in terms of time and space
from all the communication technologies that existed before. At the same time, in theory, it was
seen that class differences could be abandoned in the face of a small cost.

The Internet is technically a world-wide, ever-growing network of interconnected computers and

computer systems. In this communication network, computers are physically connected to each
other (cabling, satellite links, wireless connection, etc.) and many works can be done based on
sharing information among connected computers with some special protocols developed (TCP /
IP). (such as file import / export, chat, etc.)

The roots of the Internet can be found in the term ‘Galaktic Network’ which argued by J.C.R.
Licklider who worked in M.I.T. (Massachusetts Institute of Tecnology). Licklider stated that anyone
who wants to have a globally connected system with this concept can access data and programs
from anywhere and anytime they want. In October 1962, Licklider headed the computer research
department of the American Military Research Project (DARPA - Defense Advenced Research
Project Agency). In 1965 Lawrence Roberts and Thomas Merrill, who worked as researchers at
MIT, make computers 'talk' for the first time to each other.

At the end of 1966, Roberts also started to work in DARPA and proposed the project named
"ARPANET". The first connection in the ARPANET framework was made in 1969 with four centers
and the first appearance of the internet emerged with connections between the hosts. The first
four centers that created ARPANET were the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), the
Stanford Research Institute (SRI), the University of Utah, and finally the University of California at
Santa Barbara (UCSB). What should Academy serve into?

In a very brief time many computers in the center were connected to the ARPANET network. In
1982, electronic mail was first used in ARPANET. On January 1, 1983, it began to be used in
ARPANET as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP / IP). TCP / IP has taken its place as the
main network of today's Internet network. In the mid-1980s, the American military computer
network (DOD) affiliated to the Ministry of Defense left ARPANET and established its own network
with the name MILITARY NET. In 1986, the American scientific research institute was organized as
NSFNET by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

NSFNET has started to operate under the agreement of the NSF with the organization of the
Michigan State universities called Merit. After a while, NSFNET was operated by Merit, along with
US computer giant IBM and communication giant MCI. Created in 1990 to operate NSFNET, it
was called 'Advanced Network Services' (ANS-Advance Network Services). The process of the
establishment of the ANS was also the beginning of the privatization process of the internet which
to that point grew up in the United States with state support. The privatization process, which
began in 1990 with the joint venture of NSFnet and private companies, was completed in May
1995 with NSF's complete withdrawal from the Internet operations. Since 1995 private companies
own internet operations in USA.

Transformation of Internet and Journalism

Two important contributions will be found to those who control the media in terms of its structure
and power; First, global media, global mass communication has become a highly profitable
sector. The commercial structure created by the media especially during this period has probably
gone far beyond the ethics of the profession. Secondly, the media plays a critical role in the
consolidation of the existing authority. The global media phenomenon has changed radically,
especially with the introduction of high-speed internet into our lives. But this radical change has
not created a change in the oligarchic structure of the media for now, but only some new
companies have entered this limited elite group. Although this is provided by economic methods,
it bases its existence on two basic hegemony instruments: Propaganda and Censorship

Censorship
Censorship practices in authoritarian / totalitarian states and censorship practices in capitalist
states are quite different. The propaganda model can be examined through the models produced
by Chomsky and Herman. Censorship is not developed through banning something but is
developed through not writing, publishing etc. in the first place. Censorship is not just a force
created by external forces. At the same time, self-censorship emerging from issues such as
interest, ideology, newspaper policy is also effective at the same time.

Censorship does not always progress directly in Western systems, it can also be applied
indirectly. For example, one of the most commonly used methods in censorship applications is to
control printing. Controlling printing also controls the media. Another method is to create a
pre-license system. All these concepts reveal themselves more clearly during the war periods.
One of the main advantages of the Internet for journalism is the chance to reach reality outside
the official discourse (if possibilities are available). But the power of capital shows itself even
during war periods. The cost of logistics, accommodation, and news production is quite high. It is
quite difficult for independent sources to meet these requirements.

Embedded Journalism
Embedded journalism refers to news reporters being attached to military units involved in armed
conflicts. While the term could be applied to many historical interactions between journalists and
military personnel, it first came to be used in the media coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The
United States military responded to pressure from the country's news media who were
disappointed by the level of access granted during the 1991 Gulf War and the 2001 U.S. invasion
of Afghanistan. At different times, a total of 775 journalists and photographers were ‘embedded'
to the US Army and were taken to the war zone, reflecting 'the war they saw through armored
vehicles' to the US public. Asked why they went to such an application, Marine infantry lieutenant
colonel Rick Long said, «We want to win the battle. And the information is an important part of
this war. We would like to dominate the field of information, "he replied.

The media authorities who are critics of embedded journalism say they are "inbedded journalists"
as they believe they imply the work they are doing to such journalists. Charles Lynch, an
embedded journalist who cover Second World War for Reuters reflects his memories about that
time like this: In the beginning, the government's propaganda machine were leading us. Soon
after, we became our own propaganda machine. We were all now amigos in the stadium of the
team that we like.

Washington Post column writer David Ignatius said in his column on May 2, 2010 reflects his time
in Iraq and Afghanistan as an embedded journalism: ‘There is a price to be attached. We saw war
from a single perspective, not as a whole’. But what worries Ignatius today is that embedded
journalism is beginning to become a 'norm' even in political and cultural reporting, beyond war
stories: ‘"Even in political and cultural debates, journalists are simply transferring what appears to
be a blindfolded caravan. There is no difference in being in the caravan of a politician, a party or a
social group, constantly in the tank of one side of the war. Of course, journalists on 'a party bus'
or 'an important plane' are directly liaising with the source of news, but at the same time, they
feed in journalism and destroy free competition’’. Is taking side can be end of journalism?

Just two days after the invasion of Iraq, Ignatius entered Iraq with a car they rented with a group
of journalists. Because they were not under military protection, they made a very risky and
dangerous journey. However, even that trip would have been enough to see what the ‘embedded
journalists' did not see: the local people were preparing to armed rebellion against US forces ...
The United States lost more troops after May 1, 2003, the day US president Bush explained on a
war ship that the war is over and also US suffers one of the biggest economic crises of its history.

Citizen Journalism
The concept of citizen journalism is based upon public citizens "playing an active role in the
process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information." Similarly,
Courtney C. Radsch defines citizen journalism "as an alternative and activist form of news
gathering and reporting that functions outside mainstream media institutions, often as a response
to shortcomings in the professional journalistic field, that uses similar journalistic practices but is
driven by different objectives and ideals and relies on alternative sources of legitimacy than
traditional or mainstream journalism". Jay Rosen proposes a simpler definition: "When the people
formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform
one. Indeed, the fact that journalists are not able to fulfill their professional values is one of the
reasons for the importance of this type of journalism. Another important development seems to
be the emergence of technological developments and that everyone now has a news kit.

Bloggers, twitter users and other people using social networking sites are also referred to as
'Citizen Journalists'. Without the need for special technical equipment, individuals who set up
their own personal media over the Internet have the opportunity to advertise their thoughts, ideas
and projects to a large audience and increase their influence. For these reason, tools such as
opinions, news, and images shared by people in areas such as social media are as effective as
the news pages share.

Mark Glaser, a freelance journalist who frequently writes on new media issues, said in 2006: ‘The
idea behind citizen journalism is that people without professional journalism training can use the
tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the Internet to create, augment or
fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others. For example, you might write about
a city council meeting on your blog or in an online forum. Or you could fact-check a newspaper
article from the mainstream media and point out factual errors or bias on your blog. Or you might
snap a digital photo of a newsworthy event happening in your town and post it online. Or you
might videotape a similar event and post it on a site such as YouTube.’

J. D. Lasica classifies media for citizen journalism into the following types:
1. Audience participation (such as user comments attached to news stories, personal blogs,
photographs or video footage captured from personal mobile cameras, or local news
written by residents of a community)
2. Independent news and information Websites (Consumer Reports, the Drudge Report)
3. Full-fledged participatory news sites (one:convo, NowPublic, OhmyNews,
DigitalJournal.com, GroundReport, 'Fair Observer'
4. Collaborative and contributory media sites (Slashdot, Kuro5hin, Newsvine)
5. Other kinds of "thin media" (mailing lists, email newsletters)
6. Personal broadcasting sites (video broadcast sites such as KenRadio)

According to Terry Flew, there have been three elements critical to the rise of citizen
journalism:

1. Open Publishing, 2. Collaborative Editing 3. Distributed Conten

Another concept that can be evaluated with citizen journalism can be considered as 'Six Degrees
of Separation'. According to this theory, except for exceptions, if an ordinary person can reach
another ordinary person in six degrees, this is one of the potentials that will increase the
importance of citizen journalism.

The idea that every citizen can engage in acts of journalism has a long history in the world. The
contemporary citizen journalist movement emerged after journalists began to question the
predictability of their coverage of events such as the 1988 U.S. presidential election. Those
journalists became part of the public, or civic, journalism movement, which sought to counter the
erosion of trust in the news media and the widespread disillusionment with politics and civic
affairs. Rodney King 1992 events. Would it have happened if there were no images?
With today's technology the citizen journalist movement has found new life as the average person
can capture news and distribute it globally. As Yochai Benkler has noted, "the capacity to make
meaning – to encode and decode humanly meaningful statements – and the capacity to
communicate one's meaning around the world, are held by, or readily available to, at least many
hundreds of millions of users around the globe.

In 1999, activists in Seattle created a response to the WTO meeting being held there. Seattle
movements is one of the highlight and milestones of anti-globalization movements. These
activists understood the only way they could get into the corporate media was by blocking the
streets or create a form of violence. So they understand they need to create an alternative media
model. Since then, the Indymedia movement has experienced exponential growth, and
International Media Centers have been created in more than 200 cities all over the world..

A recent trend in citizen journalism has been the emergence of what blogger Jeff Jarvis terms
hyperlocal journalism. As online news sites invite contributions from local residents of their
subscription areas, who often report on topics that conventional newspapers tend to ignore.
‘Instead of being the gatekeeper, telling people that what's important to them 'isn't news', we're
just opening up the gates and letting people come on in…’ There are also some criticisms for
citizen journalism. These are; Objectivity, Quality, Legal repercussions.

Internet, Civil Society and Public Sphere

Public Sphere
The public sphere has become one of the most important subjects of sociology during the
modern period. The public sphere is the domain between the authority and the private domain..
For example, the study area is a public sphere in capitalism.

According to Habermas, the public sphere is the domain between authority and people. It is a
very important field for democracy. Private is belong to people. But there is a common need for a
participatory political space. Any public concern or interest should be revealed, discussed and
reacted to in the public sphere. The public space is a complete one. For this reason is does not
regard class, economic, ideological or political differences.

Describing the emergence of the public sphere in the 18th century, Jürgen Habermas noted that
the public realm, or sphere, originally was ‘coextensive with public authority’ ın 18th century civil
society emerges. Without society, there is no public sphere. Just as the social movement could
not exist (and the social movement is related to the public sphere) without the same society ...
When people are considered subject, we can talk about neither the public nor the press that
affects the public space. Nowadays the public sphere is conceptually a distinct area from the
state. The importance of public sphere is related to public participation and public opinion. For
this reason, it directly affects elements like press which should be a medium of the public sphere.

Public sphere is not a physical situation. At the same time, the public space is not under the
control of a particular group. It is between classes and can be anywhere in the social area. The
bound between them can usually be established through citizenship consciousness. But as
movements such as anti-war movement, anti-globalization also show global citizenship can also
develop a consciousness. According to Habermas, the public sphere is increasingly losing power.
Because some powerful organizations directly intervene in this area. It is also necessary to see
that these interventions are made directly on city basis. Influence of communities (Ukrainian
Crisis)
Habermas' concept of public space should not be confused with ‘public’. ‘Public’ is but rather
individuals who come together. Habermas's concept of "public sphere", however, defines an
institution that is embodied by people's participation of thought and action. However, the public
sphere can not be simply described as "crowded". There is no intersection of state and public
sphere. On the contrary, both should be considered as counterparts.

Public sphere is an open field. Topics such as health, education, participation is spoken in here.
Both sociological, economic and legal infrastructure of ideas should develop in here. For this
reasons according to Hannah Arendt, the public sphere is therefore "the common world" that
"gathers us together and yet prevents our falling over each other". It gathers its democratic needs
from dialogue, not from violence.

Habermas defines the public sphere as a "society engaged in critical public debate". Conditions
of the public sphere are according to Habermas: The formation of public opinion. All citizens have
access. Conference in unrestricted fashion (based on the freedom of assembly, the freedom of
association, the freedom to expression and publication of opinions) about matters of general
interest, which implies freedom from economic and political control. Debate over the general rules
governing relations.

Public Sphere is the most important area that journalism protects. The award for the best
investigative journalist in the Pulitzer Prizes is also named ‘Public Service’ award. Journalism is
not just the sharing of daily news. The concept of investigative journalist is an important indicator
of this. These journalists are not expected to produce news regularly, they do not benefit from the
agenda, they create an agenda.

According to Manuel Castells, social media is another important factor that disrupts the public
sphere. At this point it is necessary to look at the concepts which emerges first of all from Jan
Van Dijk and Manuel Castells. What Castells define as Network Society is a society that every
decision used to made in public sphere like problems of democracy shift to web, internet and
social media. Although network has certain advantages such as representation, the hate speech
and chaos that emerge in the virtual environment when looked at day-to-day is proof that public
sphere is still an important area for democracy, even though the public sphere is under threat. No
problems can be solved over the network. Another advantage of Network Society is the potential
to bring issues from local to the global.

The Zapatista movement is at the forefront of local examples of global success. According to
Castells, Network Society will directly contribute to democratization because democracy is the
point of producing every moment in internet. In other words, the Internet has a great chance of
being a positive contributor to democratic development and transformation.. At the peak of these
possibilities there may be the internet which its information flow and reaction that can disrupt the
power balances (Star Wars Battlefront II).

Castells differs from previous thinkers and argues that social dynamics developed through the
transfer of information. In this direction, Castells suggests the concept of "information society"
instead of information age. The information society has come to an end with the technological
revolution that took place at the end of the 20th century.

According to Castells, the expansion of capitalism is no longer based on the production of the
working class and material goods, as Marx thought. On the contrary, telecommunication and
computers are the basis of production. At this point, it is necessary to question where journalism
stands. Should the journalism approach (not its values) change in this period when social
relations are so changed? Castells thinks that it is possible to regain effective control of the global
market. This will happen not through any revolution, but through the joint efforts of international
organizations and countries, which are the consequences of transnational capitalism. Castells has
come to the conclusion that information technology can become a vehicle for the renewal of local
strength and community in many places.

Freedom of Press
Freedom of the press is one of the most important tools for the democratization and development
of the public sphere. Since the press has emerged, the notion of freedom of the press has
become a phenomenon both written on and constrained to. One of the most important examples
for freedom of press is Thomas Paine. In 1792, Thomas Paine was prosecuted for being a traitor
in the UK and for supporting the American and French Revolutions. The task of defending Paine
fell to Thomas Erskine, the chief prosecutor of the Prince of Wales.

Thomas Erskine in his hours of opening speech stated that the crimes allegedly committed must
be dropped on the grounds that it is contrary to the concept of "freedom of the press", the most
basic principle of 'constitution'. But the court found Paine guilty and jailed him. In 1794, future
president ofUS James Monroe made diplomatic connections, helping Paine to be released from
jail. Paine, who remained in England until 1802, then went to the United States and stayed there
until the end of his life.

Everything Paine defended in his newspaper, he also defend in his book Age of Reason.
'Intelligence Age' is written on a wide range of topics ranging from religious issues such as
freedom of religion (freedom of not believing) to economic issues such as having minimum
wages. Everything Paine writes in the ‘Age of Reason’ is actually rights that people had and rights
that it is unthinkable that it is not implemented.. Here Paine is an important example of what
exactly the press should do.

Freedom of the press debate also reveals the notion that the press is not just a commercial
bulletin or a piece of paper describing state affairs. The definition of the fourth power was first
used by the British writer Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797). The fourth power concept, was enhanced
by press freedom and press ethics, but also by the emergence of political class newspapers after
the French Revolution.

Although the concept of freedom of the press is a universal concept, the practices are not the
same throughout the world. In Europe, the press is one of the medium of the Enlightenment,
coming out of Medieval darkness. In the 1720's John Wilkes's case III. George had to accept
parliamentary press reports in newspapers. In the Ottomans, until 1727, Turkish and Arabic
publishing was banned. (Tanzimat 1839). The first periodicals in Japan appeared in the 1860s.

The concept of liberal press freedom is a corporate concept; that is, in certain respects it can be
evaluated through private property. In other words, liberal press freedom is assessed the freedom
of speech through having property. Marxist theory also gives the right to speak to the
dispossessed. From this point of view, the internet provides an opportunity of freedom of speech
to the dispossessed.

Four different arguments about freedom of the press have been put forward in England, the
birthplace of the idea of freedom of the press in the modern sense..
1. Theological Approach
2. Suitability of Press Behavior to Individual's Rights
3. Pragmatism
4. İdea That Truth Can Be Established Only Through Unrestricted Debate Between Citizens
Freedom of the press is one of the most important assurances of civil society and democracy.
Democracy cannot be defined solely by election, but at the same time it is necessary to see that,
the people are governed by the people for the people. Of course, the most important institution
that should ensure this transparency is not the state, but the civil society, and more specifically,
the newspapers. Freedom of the press is important both in legal and administrative terms and in
economic terms. If freedom is not provided, democracies return to so called freedom. The
development of press, media and supervisory technologies led to posibility of more freedom of
press and at the same time it spread control over different areas. On the one hand, the limitations
of traditional mediums, on the other hand, the possibility of freedom of the internet reveals the
question of how much state control should be in these places. RTÜK Law planned to be changed
in Turkey

Many of the traditional means of delivering information are being slowly superseded by the
increasing pace of modern technological advance. Almost every conventional mode of media and
information dissemination has a modern counterpart that offers significant potential advantages
to journalists seeking to maintain and enhance their freedom of speech. A few simple examples of
such phenomena include. Satellite television vs. terrestrial television,Internet-based publishing
(e.g., blogging, social media) vs. traditional publishing, Internet, anonymity software and strong
cryptography, Voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) vs. conventional telephony.

Net Neutrality
Net neutrality is the principle that governments should mandate Internet service providers to treat
all data on the Internet the same, and not discriminate or charge differently by user, content,
website, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or method of communication. To put
it more clearly, it is based on the principle that no data on the internet is controlled by a policy, a
law, a rule, a user, content, site, application, platform etc.

Network Neutrality was abolished two months ago by the US Federal Communications
Commission (FCC). On one hand, this decision, which allows to create class in the internet, also
means that some applications that were previously free may be charged.

Discourse Analysis
Generally speaking, when media criticism is mentioned, we can mention the existence of two
major currents in the world: the Anglo-Saxon, in other words the American school and Latin
School. Glasgow Media Studies is the only school in the world today that is formed in
Anglo-Saxon World but stay loyal to critical theory. It would be more appropriate to place the
Glasgow school in the European category, on contrary to see it, as a typical product of the
Anglo-Saxon world. Likewise, the work of a vast experts of sociologist or media academics from
Glasgow School community from Raymond Williams to Jeremy Tunstall to is not primarily belong
American social science theory but to European social science theory. The Glasgow Media
Studies is a brief study of how social architecture is produced through the press. Naturally, the
main work areas have been news programs. At the same time, since they started to work in the
70's and 80's, their main medium was television. But on the other hand, they also looked at areas
such as soap operas, television series and documentary. Basically Glasgow School studies
discourse. They look discourse through point of view.
Social Movements and İnternet
Social Movements: Concept, Ideology, Structure
Today's world is a world in which a liberal democratic monopoly is seen as a ’right‘ system.
Liberal democracies are democracies dominated by the market economy. But it is not so easy to
describe the word democracy. As a general definition, democracy is the guarantee that the rights
of the minority are not seized by the majority. But the populist politics of today, on the contrary,
does not hesitate to polarize societies and turn elections into war zones. In this context, social
movements are one of the essential requirements of democracies as a democratic right. Contrary
to popular belief, this is a peaceful method against polarization and hatred.

Social movements; unlike other cases such as rebellion, civil war and coup, they do not want to
change the system. On the contrary, by protecting the system itself, they want to improve the
parts they see as problems within the system. This demand can be on a wide range from
economic grounds to environmental concerns, from discrimination against a particular group to
the demands of legal transformation. In other words, social movements can be seen as surgical
removal of a tumor.

According to Charles Tilly; Social movements are grup collective claims by ordinary people
through continuous performances, demonstrations and campaigns through the system, other
groups or persons. According to Tilly, in order for a social movement to succeed, the ‘repertoire‘
of that movement must be wide. The repertoire of action is a concept in the field of social
movements that expresses the means by which groups who carry out collective actions can
express various demands, put them on the agenda of the power and attract more people to their
own movements. The repertoire of action is used to mean ‘means of collective action on the basis
of common interests’.

It is difficult to define social movements without reductionist because of ones ideological, political
and cultural values. For this reason, it is necessary to define the characteristics of social
movements in the present perception. Anachrotic observation should also be avoided.

Since social movement is an individual or social activity, it can be said that the movement is only
accepted in modern societies. For social movements, it is also called the efforts of the individuals
who were born into the system, who has something to lose, or who do not want directly
abolished from the system by means of direct revolt. Having something to lose will ensure that
movements do not turn into riots or violence. Therefore, the only thing that the authority has to do
in democratic systems is not to turn people into something that has nothing to lose. One of the
most important trumps of capitalist democracies is the ability to feed the opposition into the
system.

In contrast to the revolts, social movements tend to be in a certain area within the democratic
order. It is not the change of system is but it is the correction of the system. It is not changing the
constitution. If it is not by law, it is desired to deal with the changes inside of the constitution. The
desire to integrate outside groups into the system. In general, the solution proposal comes with
the action. The repertoire and communication of the movement is therefore very important.

Conceptual features of Social Movement;

- It is a tool of democratic order (due to the formation of society)
- It is based on citizenship.
- It is generally seen as a case by crowds.
- They are generally seen as a city movement.
 - Social movements are generally a middle class movement.

One of the earliest and most comprehensive frameworks on analyzing social movements
comes from American anthropologist David Aberle in 1966 in his book titled The Peyote
Religion Among the Navajo. According to Aberle, a social movement is an organized effort by
a group of human beings to effect change in the face of resistance by other human beings. By
this definition, a social movement is differentiated from purely individual efforts, from unorganized
group efforts such as crowd action (if indeed these efforts are truly unorganized), and from efforts
at technological change which proceed only against the resistance of the material world. Under
the heading of resistance by other human beings is included passive resistance or apathy. It
should be noted that the definition does not require that the resistance be organized.

Aberle also discusses four different types of social movement and those are alterative,
redemptive, reformative, and transformative. He categorizes these based on how much
they’re trying to change and what they are trying to change. So, whether they’re trying to
make change at an individual level or at a societal level and whether they’re seeking partial
change or total change.

Alterative Movements: An alterative movement is after partial individual change. Its goal is
partial change in individuals’ behavior. An example of this would be Mothers Against Drunk
Driving. They’re after the simple individual goal of trying to make people stop drinking and driving.
Another example of this would be efforts to promote recycling. They’re merely trying to get
individuals to recycle their waste.

Redemptive Movements: Redemptive seek total individual change. The defining characteristic,
Aberle says, is the search for a new inner-state. These are most often religious movements
promoting a total change in a person. For example, a religious movement that promises salvation
through a complete personal transformation.

Reformative Movements: Reformative Movements seek partial social change — they seek
partial change in social systems. An example would be the Women’s Suffrage Movement, the
movement for women to gain the right to vote. They merely wanted to change a part of the
system — they wanted to have equal voting rights, the same as men.

Transformative Movements: Transformative Movements seek total social change — a total

change in social systems. Revolutions fall into the category of transformative social movements.

An easy way to determine between transformative and reformative is that the people that are
involved in a reformative movement usually want to be included equally within the current system.
So the Women’s Suffrage Movement, they wanted equal rights, equal to men, but within the
current system. Transformative movements, revolutions, typically seek to somehow change or
destroy the current system altogether rather than merely being included equally within it.

Internet, Media and Social Movements

Media is a great power. The media has been able to change the historical process as evidenced
over many years. But since the media was seen as a sector since its emergence, journalism has
evolved into a profession between profit margins. Today's world is a period when the two
concepts that are supposed to stay away from each other like media and profit are tied
organically. But this organic bond is not only a special phenomenon for today. It was only so
connected to one another that today's world journalistic ties were forgotten. The overall cost of
the newspaper in every period of the media was the most important issue for that organ's life.
Between 1815 and 1840, 'Times' had a full independence period because it was a very good
financial situation and because it became a newspaper with the help of many readers. But the
economic conditions of the modern world prevent a media from gaining financial independence
with only the number of readers. Therefore media outlets sold to the big companies. Today, there
are very few independent institutions that can stand up to this pressure in the national arena.

In spite of this serious problematic structure, even the worst media is always a organization of
fear for those who hold the power of the system. One of the first thinkers of social movements
and the elitist, bourgeois writer, Le Bon sees the media as the greatest responsible of the social
movements therefore he humiliates the media. The Internet has the opportunity to become a new
point of resistance in today's world. At the same time, just like system used to fear traditional
media they also is afraid of internet journalism and similar information tools produced on the
internet. In 2016, various governments in the world intervened more than 50 times directly on the
internet

Habermas says that the basic point of capitalism in preserving its legitimacy and authority in spite
of its crises lies in the withdrawal of perceptions in different directions, in other words
misinformation. “The crisis is not perceived as a system crisis, and condemnations and
grievances are directed towards politicians where they will turn to the system that is not
functioning properly.’ ‘System is defective or has lost the ability to manage. The system is good or
at least not bad, politicians are bad and a discourse is produced as responsible for the state of
economy.’

In every period, authority tries to break the communicative power of the dissidents and invalidate
their discourse. Authority is exercised through compulsion (whether it is legal or not, monopoly of
state control), and / or by creating meanings in the minds of people through symbolic
manipulation mechanisms. It is obvious that these mechanisms spread to the media. The
alternative media, which may be called Radical Media, can be found as an option instead of the
media which is holding the role of conservationist of capitalism and the system. In nowadays the
roots of alternative media lies in internet.

Radical or Alternative Media is one of the most important tools that can face the dominant
ideology. This type of organization will help both social movements and broader social
engineering not to conform to the vision of direct dominant ideology. The chance that internet
media brings to society shoul be understood and assess carefully. Just because something is on
internet it should not be considered as a truthful source and also it should not be considered as
an alternative source. The problem here is the problem of using this type of media as a
propaganda tool. Looking at the recent United States elections, it is clear how far right-wing
organizations have lied under alternative media coverage. The news sites such as Breitbart, which
the new president of the United States, Donald Trump has regularly followed, have turned into a
specialist site for publishing and spreading lies about propaganda directly. This kind of news,
without evidence, reduces the credibility of social media and radical media seriously while at the
same time allowing certain groups to believe in this corporate liespace.

Breitbart News Network is a far-right syndicated American news, opinion and commentary
website founded in mid-2007 by conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart, who conceived it
as "the Huffington Post of the right." Its journalists are widely considered to be ideologically
driven, and some of its content has been called misogynistic, xenophobic, and racist by liberals
and many traditional conservatives alike. Breitbart News aligned with the alt-right under the
management of former executive chairman Steve Bannon, who declared the website "the
platform for the alt-right" in 2016. Bannon served as White House Chief Strategist in the
administration of U.S. President Donald Trump during the first seven months of Trump's term.
At this point, human beings organize their organization in much less ’official’ or alternative places.
Many areas such as parks, pubs, cafes, social gathering areas have evolved into areas of
resistance culture. Social media or, in other words, the new media are in a structured to fit into
this new organization. Without forgetting the dangers of misenformation and disinformation,
social media is one of the few places that has the opportunity to create a democratic public
space where everyone can declare his / her opinion, not a vertical organization but in a horizontal
organization.

In this communication environment, social movements have difficulty in making their voices heard
in the existing media technologies. Especially in today's monopoly ideology, the media tries to
destroy the movements within both in the subtext and in the uppertext. Against this, in today's
world where information revolution is experienced, new communication channels that can get rid
of this monopoly and can become opportunities. Communication technologies are a great
opportunity for social movements. In general, one of the biggest problems of social movements is
misrepresentation and inability to reach enough people. This communication monopoly does not
only work for the existing period. This also creates the possibility of manipulating history. Most of
the written and non-written sources that have transferred the history of humanity to today are
written and kept by the elite and reflecting their own mentality.

Changing technology has also created opportunities for the media. On the one hand, changing
technology imposes responsibility on each citizen while making them a source. Concepts such as
citizen journalism have emerged and people have created their own communication channels
against the media that they do not represent them. For social movements, the potential of social
media cannot be denied. Not only social media but all developing technologies are waiting to be
used as powerful tools for breaking down the established reality.

Social media or alternative media can create symbols for social movements quickly than rest of
the media. But in this post-truth age this can turn into something chaotic. But especially today,
the abuse of the power of social media to create new realities only benefits the political system.
Since the system is aware of this opportunity, the reliability of the internet is decreasing day by
day. Movements can change into civil war and protest seen as treason by some agitators.

Another important part of social media is a sense of togetherness. According to Charles Tilly,
people only believe to a cause when they are part of the collective. It has such an important but
instrumental value in increasing the participation rate of social media. For those who do not know
what the movement represents or does not understand the values of a movement, it is possible to
present a clear, clean, disinformation evaluation on that movement line. But this situation also can
create problematic groups.