The Listening Post

Turkish media: Caught in the wheels of power?

With domestic media outlets under fire for ignoring massive street protests, we examine media ownership in Turkey.

Turks first took to the streets on May 28 to demonstrate against the redevelopment of a park in Istanbul. Over the course of a week the non-violent demonstration escalated into large-scale anti-government protests. The subsequent crackdown by the authorities turned violent but much of Turkey’s domestic media ignored the story.

With the vacuum in mainstream media coverage, protesters turned to social media to get their story out but this unfettered source of news potentially inflamed the situation.

Our News Divide this week assesses what the domestic coverage of the protests – or the lack of – says about media ownership in Turkey and the relations those companies have with Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government. Talking us through the story is Yavuz Baydar from Sabah newspaper; Yasemine Congar, the former deputy editor of Taraf newspaper; Andrew Finkel, the auther of Turkey: What everyone needs to know; Ziya Meral, an academic and writer; and Mustafa Akyol, a columnist for Hurriyet.

This week’s Newsbytes: The trial of Bradley Manning begins but the media gets limited access; a prominent blogger becomes the first person to be jailed for insulting President Morsi; in Qatar, a draft cyber crime bill causes alarm for press freedom groups; and a major US newspaper lays off all the photographers on its staff replacing them with reporters armed with i-phones.
 
Our feature this week takes us to the World Press Photo Awards. Photography is an inherently subjective medium but there is a new trend in photojournalism that adds another dimension. It is called post-processing and it’s when photojournalists digitally enhance their work to make it more captivating to the eye. The practise has raised some ethical questions within the industry and highlighting the debate is this year’s World Press Photo winner. Photographer Paul Hansen’s image was enhanced to the point that it was accused of being a composite. Although the allegation was dismissed the question still remains as to how far photojournalists and news agencies should be allowed to go when digitally enhancing photographs.

The Listening Post’s Nicholas Muirhead looks at this year’s World Press Photo Awards and the growing use of post-processing in photojournalism.
 
Why should professional photographers have all the fun? You too can digitally manipulate your photographs – do away with blemishes, red eye or the spare tire that is marring your waistline. A couple of years back, the people at CollegeHumor.com posted a music video for a tune they call ‘Photoshop Tutorial Rap’. CMY Killa and his crew of effects gurus school a few people on the tricks of a very misleading trade. Forget subjective photography or minor digital enhancement. These guys take it to a whole new level, where unicorns can come to life. It is our web video of the week. We hope you enjoy the show.

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