The Remaking of the Media-Military-State Relationships in the Early Twenty-First Century
This chapter focuses on the transformation of the Turkish media field as a result of the shifts in media ownership, the cultivation of AKP-friendly media conglomerates, the consequent upsurge in partisanship, and the decline in press freedoms. It traces the connections between these developments and the broader political economic forces, such as the economic crisis of 2001, the AKP's electoral hegemony, the decline of military tutelage, the entrenchment of Muslim bourgeoisie, and the new Islamist cadres in governmental and administrative structures. It argues that in Turkey's contemporary media landscape, commercial outlets have been simultaneously independent of the state and dependent on it. They are not formally owned, operated, or dominated by the state, yet their survival depends on their informal ties with the ruling elite, high bureaucracy, and judiciary. While this dependency on the state is not a new development, it has nonetheless revealed itself in astounding ways under the AKP's single-party rule.