Üsküdar University Rector Prof. Dr. Nazife Güngör attended the ‘Turkey Communication History Conference on the 100th Anniversary of Our Republic’ organized by the UNESCO Turkish National Commission, and delivered a speech titled “The Press in Turkey: From Intellectual Journalism to Commercial Media.” The Commission published the conference proceedings as a book and distributed it. In her article featured in this work, Güngör examines the development of intellectual journalism in Turkey, outlining how journalism transformed from intellectual journalism to commercial media, within its historical progression.
Üsküdar University Rector Prof. Dr. Nazife Güngör includes the following statements in the abstract of her article titled 'The Press in Turkey: From Intellectual Journalism to Commercial Media':
“This article examines the development of intellectual journalism in Turkey, outlining how journalism transformed from intellectual journalism to commercial media, within its historical progression.
However, to provide a foundation for the article, the development of intellectual journalism in Western countries is briefly discussed. According to this, the beginning of journalism in Western countries dates back to the mid-17th century. However, people's need for news and information has been a notable aspect since ancient times. Therefore, it is observed that with humanity beginning to establish organized social structures and systems, they also attached special importance to developing communication systems, depending on the periodic conditions and available opportunities. In this sense, the tradition of rapid information and news transfer is seen to have first started with wall newspapers in Ancient Greece and Rome, followed by daily news letters circulated by Venetian merchants, and then from the beginning of the 17th century, newspapers similar to those of today began to be published.
In the West, intellectual journalism began in the mid-17th century and evolved towards commercialization within the capitalist system by the mid-19th century. In Turkey, the same journey began with a two-century delay, and the process followed almost the same trajectory. We see that the first newspapers, which started in the 19th century, began to be published in Turkish. Mass media emerged in the 1950s, and by the 1980s, one can speak of a press that began to commercialize under the influence of neoliberal policies. In contemporary Turkey, the press, or media as it is called today, is seen to consist of monopolies and holdings, becoming a power in itself within the politico-economic structure and gaining functionality as an important sector of the capitalist system.