The Impact of Government-Media Relations on the Development Journalism Process in Turkey (From the beginning of the Republic until now)

Development journalism has been adorned since the 1980s with qualities such as nation-state founder, government partner, government-strengthening agents, transparency watchdogs and observers. The purpose of this article is to analyze the role of development journalism in the process of democratization in Turkey and the interaction of government-media relations on the process of development journalism as well. In this research, methodologically, the "process tracking" method from the sub-case analysis subsets has been used. In Turkey, "development journalism" has essentially played the role of a professional intellectual who provides the energy needed for social movements and helps to raise awareness of the need for action. This trend was felt almost during the Second World War and after the establishment of a multi-party political system in this country in 1945, despite extensive obstacles, including the intervention and rule of the military, and has continued to this day with its own ups and downs. With the entry into the multiparty system in 1945, changes in social and political systems and in legal and economic spheres were also reflected in the media. With the emergence of the Democratic Party as the first elected party in the history of Turkey, the expectation of dramatic changes in the press wasformed, but the practice of "authoritarian benevolence" which believes in the need for cooperation between newspapers and governments during nation-building and in the social, economic and political processes, it was not realized in this period. In the 1960s, due to the military coup and the adoption of a new constitution, the main and determining element of government-media relations was the governing style and politics of the ruling structure. In the 1970s, one of the most critical periods of political and social change in Turkey, the press and media failed to provide much energy for social movements, and fundamentally new forms of protest and new concepts of politics were not produced. In the 1980s, the authoritarian form of the Turkish political system did not allow the development of the Turkish journalism to continue its upward trend. It was drawn towards commercialization and consumerism. In the 1990s, like the political system that underwent a coalition structure full of ups and downs, the press experienced a period of monopoly and fragmentation, and so the Turkish press, including journalism, was declining. In the 21st century, when the Islamist Justice Party came to power and is still in power, we can call this period as the process of gradually democratizing and purposefully changing some provisions of the constitution and finally changing the political system from parliamentary to presidential. In this period gradually The "benevolence of authoritarianism" fades and we see the practice of totalitarianism, which has greatly limited the space for growth and development of development journalism.