INTERNET JOURNALISM FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF LOCAL MEDIA MANAGERS: ADVANTAGES AND THREATS

Abstract

Traditional journalism practices have undergone significant changes with the start of digital broadcasting. Today, newspapers apply different techniques and methods in their news production processes. Nowadays, people read the physically published stories or watch them online on their smart phones, tablets or computers. with these possibilities offered by the internet, they have the opportunity to obtain more detailed information, with images and videos published in multiple media, discuss and make instant comments about the news.

The acceptance of the new media by the society has of course enabled local newspapers to publish in this direction and evolve into internet journalism. The local press is not an area that produces news limited only to the province or region in which it is published. At the same time, it encourages participation in the society with all the content it transmits, ensures the sharing of values, becomes effective in the formation of a common culture, reinforces responsible citizenship in the context of urban and urban awareness, and contributes to the formation of a sense of belonging to the city in which individuals live. Based on these important features of local journalism discussing the new field of internet journalism locally, revealing its problems and superiorities is considered as a necessity and constitutes the problematic of this study.

In the context of the study the web pages, news categories, and the format of press organizations that have daily publications in print and online and organizations that only publish online analyzed via the content analysis method. The sample of the study is listed on the list of press organizations published on the official website of Mersin Province Governorship In-depth interviews with 18 managers were conducted, who are in the management cadres of 10 local media organizations that publish both print and internet newspapers and also 8 managers who work for internet journalism organizations in the local media of Mersin. These interviews are coded via the MaxQDA (2022) program and analyzed with descriptive analysis method.