Skip to content
1981
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Journal of Alternative & Community Media
  4. Volume 5, Issue 1
  5. Article
Volume 5, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2634-4726
  • E-ISSN: 2206-5857
file format pdf download PDF

Abstract

Recent social movements, as exemplified by the informal organizations formed during and after the Occupy Movement in the United States and Gezi Park Protests in Turkey, are characterized by distrust towards institutional political bodies and hierarchical organizations (Boler et al. 2014). Also, the debate on the relationship between social movements and digital media technologies often highlights the opportunities that these technologies provide for ‘largely unfettered deliberation and coordination of action’ (Castells 2012). Scholars critical towards the concept argue that horizontal grassroots organizations may suffer from problems of continuity and formation of a durable movement (Calhoun 2013). This article aims to investigate the organizational characteristics and media practices of grassroots organizations that were established or mobilized following Gezi Park Protests, a nation-level social protest in Turkey. Drawing on participant observation of three grassroots social movement organizations in Istanbul – Dogancilar Park Forum and Imrahor Garden; Macka Park Forum and Komsu Kapisi Association and Validebag Volunteers – this analysis will aim to contextualize opportunities and obstacles associated with the horizontal structures of such movements. The article will particularly focus on the strategies that these organizations utilize to maintain the sustainability of the respective movements and approaches they employ in media and communication practices at a local level.

© 2020 Intellect Ltd
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/joacm_00074_1
2020-04-01
2024-10-10
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/joacm/5/1/joacm.5.1.45.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1386/joacm_00074_1&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Akser, M., and Baybars-Hawks, B.. ( 2012;), ‘ Media and democracy in Turkey: Toward a model of neoliberal media autocracy. ’, Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, 5:3, pp. 302–21.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Aouragh, M.. ( 2012;), ‘ Tweeting like a pigeon: The Internet in the Arab revolutions. ’, Cyberorient, 6:2, pp. 70–91.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Bal, H. M., and Baruh, L.. ( 2015;), ‘ Citizen involvement in emergency reporting: A study on witnessing and citizen journalism. ’, Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture, 6:2, pp. 213–31.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Bimber, B.. ( 2000;), ‘ The study of information technology and civic engagement. ’, Political Communication, 17:4, pp. 329–33.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Boler, M.,, Macdonald, A.,, Nitsou, C., and Harris, A.. ( 2014;), ‘ Connective labor and social media: Women’s roles in the “leaderless” occupy movement. ’, Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 20:4, pp. 438–60.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Bulut, E., and Bal, H. M.. ( 2017;), ‘ Disrupting the spectacle: The case of Capul TV during and after Turkey’s Gezi Uprising. ’, in M. Briziarelli, and E. Armano. (eds), The Spectacle 2.0: Reading Debord in the Context of Digital Capitalism, London:: University of Westminster Press;, pp. 209–25.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Calhoun, C.. ( 2013;), ‘ Occupy Wall Street in perspective. ’, The British Journal of Sociology, 64:1, pp. 26–38.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Cammaerts, B.. ( 2018), The Circulation of Anti-Austerity Protest, Basingstoke:: Palgrave Macmillan;.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Çapa, E.. ( 2017;), ‘ Maçka Forumu: Projede değişen bir şey yok, Maçka Parkı hala tehdit altında. ’, Hürriyet, 1 March, http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/macka-forumu-projede-degisen-bir-sey-yok-mack-40381303. Accessed 2 May 2018.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Çarkoğlu, A.,, Baruh, L., and Yıldırım, K.. ( 2014;), ‘ Press-party parallelism and polarization of news media during an election campaign: The case of the 2011 Turkish elections. ’, International Journal of Press/Politics, 19:3, pp. 295–317.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Castells, M.. ( 2009), Communication Power, New York:: Oxford University Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Castells, M.. ( 2012), Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age, Cambridge:: Polity Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Chu, D. S. C.. ( 2018;), ‘ Media use and protest mobilization: A case study of Umbrella movement within Hong Kong schools. ’, Social Media and Society, 4:1, pp. 1–11.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Clemens, E. S., and Minkoff, D. C.. ( 2004;), ‘ Beyond the iron law: Rethinking the place of organizations in social movement research. ’, in D. A. Snow,, S. A. Soule, and H. Kriesi. (eds), The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, Oxford:: Blackwell;, pp. 155–70.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Cumhuriyet ( 2018;), ‘ Doğan Medya Grubu satıldı. ’, Cumhuriyet, 21 March, http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/ekonomi/946308/Dogan_Medya_Grubu_satildi.html. Accessed 20 November 2018.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Della Porta, D., and Diani, M.. ( 2006), Social Movements: An Introduction, Malden, MA:: Blackwell;.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Downing, J. D. H.. ( 2008;), ‘ Social movement theories and alternative media: An evaluation and critique. ’, Communication, Culture & Critique, 1:1, pp. 40–50.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Downing, J. D. H.. ( 2011), Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media, Thousand Oaks, CA:: Sage;.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Esen, B., and Gumuscu, S.. ( 2016;), ‘ Rising competitive authoritarianism in Turkey. ’, Third World Quarterly, 37:9, pp. 1581–1606.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Flanagan, P.. ( 2018;), ‘ Digital divide. ’, in M. Khosrow-Pour. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology. Fourth Edition, Hershey, PA:: IGI Global;, pp. 4619–28.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Freeman, J.. ( [1970] 2013;), ‘ The tyranny of structurelessness. ’, Women's Studies Quarterly, 41:3/4, pp. 231–46.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Guedes-Bailey, O.,, Cammaerts, B., and Carpentier, N.. ( 2008), Understanding Alternative Media, Maidenhead:: McGraw Hill and Open University Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Günel, Z., and Karaoğlu, G.. ( 2015;), ‘ Transformation of collective action space: A study on the relationship between organizational attributes and ICT use. ’, Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture, 6:2, pp. 245–63.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Gürcan, E. C., and Peker, E.. ( 2014;), ‘ Turkey’s Gezi Park demonstrations of 2013: A Marxian analysis of the political moment. ’, Socialism and Democracy, 28:1, pp. 70–89.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Juris, J. S.. ( 2005;), ‘ The new digital media and activist networking within anti-corporate globalization movements. ’, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 597:1, pp. 189–208.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Juris, J. S.. ( 2012;), ‘ Reflections on #Occupy everywhere: Social media, public space, and emerging logics of aggregation. ’, American Ethnologist, 39:2, pp. 259–79.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Kavada, A.. ( 2015;), ‘ Creating the collective: Social media, the Occupy movement and its constitution as a collective actor. ’, Information, Communication & Society, 18:8, pp. 872–86.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Lester, L., and Hutchins, B.. ( 2009;) ‘ Power games: Environmental protest, news media and the Internet. ’, Media, Culture and Society, 31:4, pp. 579–95.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Melucci, A.. ( 1996), Challenging Codes: Collective Action in the Information Age, Cambridge:: Cambridge University Press;.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Özer, E.. ( 2014;), ‘ Kuzguncuk Bostanı’nda aslında neler oluyor?. ’, Diken, 30 December, http://www.diken.com.tr/kuzguncuk-bostaninda-aslinda-neler-oluyor/. Accessed 20 November 2018.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Özkaynak, B.,, Aydιn, C. İ.,, Ertör-Akyazι, P., and Ertör, I.. ( 2015;), ‘ The Gezi Park resistance from an environmental justice and social metabolism perspective. ’, Capitalism Nature Socialism, 26:1, pp. 99–114.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Panayırcı, U. C.,, İşeri, E., and Şekercioğlu, E.. ( 2016;), ‘ Political agency of news outlets in a polarized media system: Framing the corruption probe in Turkey. ’, European Journal of Communication, 31:5, pp. 551–67.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Papadopoulos, A. G., and Duru, A.. ( 2017;), ‘ Afterword: Gezi Park and Taksim square as musical landscapes of exclusion and inclusion. ’, in A. G. Papadopoulos. (ed.), Landscapes of Music in Istanbul: A Cultural Politics of Place and Exclusion, Bielefeld:: Transcript Verlag;, pp. 167–80.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Rodríguez, C.. ( 2011;), ‘ “Citizens” media. ’, in J. Downing. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media, Thousand Oaks, CA:: Sage;, pp. 98–103.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Rodríguez, C.,, Ferron, B., and Shamas, K.. ( 2014;), ‘ Four challenges in the field of alternative, radical and citizens’ media research. ’, Media, Culture & Society, 36:2, pp. 150–66.
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Taş, T., and Taş, O.. ( 2014;), ‘ Resistance on the walls, reclaiming public space: Street art in times of political turmoil in Turkey. ’, Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture, 5:3, pp. 327–49.
     [Google Scholar]
  37. Taylor, J. R., and van Every, E. J.. ( 2000), The Emergent Organization: Communication as its Site and Surface, Mahwah, NJ:: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates;.
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Toker, H.. ( 2015;), ‘ More national less European? The comparison of the last two general elections in Turkey. ’, European Journal of Communication, 30:2, pp. 188–208.
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Türkmen, H.. (@hilmiturkmen34) ( 2017;), ‘ Üsküdar 2. bostanına kavuşuyor. ’, Twitter, 27 September, https://twitter.com/hilmiturkmen34/status/913100939044597760. Accessed 29 April 2018.
     [Google Scholar]
  40. Voniati, C.,, Doudaki, V., and Carpentier, N.. ( 2018;), ‘ Mapping community media organisations in Cyprus: A methodological reflection. ’, Journal of Alternative and Community Media, 3:1, pp. 17–32.
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Yeşil Bülten ( 2014;), ‘ Üsküdar’da Bir Bostan: İmrahor. ’, YouTube, 10 March, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHZcP6NJK24. Accessed 29 April 2018.
     [Google Scholar]
  42. Bal, Haluk Mert, and Baruh, Lemi. ( 2020;), ‘ Sustainability and communication practices in grassroots movements in Turkey following Gezi Park Protests: Cases of Dogancilar Park Forum, Macka Park Forum and Validebag Volunteers. ’, Journal of Alternative & Community Media, 5:1, pp. 45–68, doi: https://doi.org/10.1386/joacm_00074_1
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/joacm_00074_1
Loading
Sustainability and communication practices in grassroots movements in Turkey following Gezi Park Protests: Cases of Dogancilar Park Forum, Macka Park Forum and Validebag Volunteers
Journal of Alternative & Community Media 5, 45 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1386/joacm_00074_1
/content/journals/10.1386/joacm_00074_1
/content/journals/10.1386/joacm_00074_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): alternative media; communication practices; ICTs; iron law of oligarchy; organizational structure; participatory media; social movements grassroots; tyranny of structurelessness

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error