Social media and the “Menace to Society”: Potential and limitations of alternative media in Turkey

Abstract

In the absence of Turkish mainstream news reporting of the Gezi Park protests in May-June 2013, Turkish citizens effectively turned to sites like Twitter and Facebook to access information from the ground and resist against the Turkish authorities. This generated representations of social media’s role throughout the events as filling the gap left by Turkish media outlets. However, this article argues that representations of social media simply as an alternative to the Turkish mainstream media fail to consider the complexities of how activists used social media as well as the complicated relationship between media and the state, and its consequences for open, democratic debate in Turkey.

Keywords

Social media, citizen journalism, alternative media, counter-hegemonic representations, rhizomatic media.