The problem of pluralist democratic representation in majority media

The effective role of the public service broadcasting model is to be

non-profitable and non-governmental, with a valuable philosophy for addressing

society’s national identity and consciousness.

The public service broadcasting model embraces the duties of responding

to all segments of society as well as acting as a tool in terms of representing

the ethnic sensitivity within this society, and as a principle, providing

diversity of programs during broadcasts. Public service broadcasting represents

a national platform for discussion and exchange of ideas where the society as a

whole reshapes its reality. With the

rapid developments recorded in communication technologies, the new identity

tailored for the public service broadcasting in the global media era is quite

problematic. The above mentioned developments have considerably eroded the

national cultural representation qualities which were initially embodied by the

public service broadcasting requiring us to reconsider the current situation.

Similarly; a public service broadcasting model based on good public principle,

which is debatable in terms of its technological and financial structure as

well as its role of the representation of the society, has problems with the

political system. The general structure of the Turkish Radio and Television

Corporation (TRT), which could be considered as the ancestor of public service

broadcasting and also radio-television broadcasting initiated with state

support and which still preserves this position, confirms this impression. TRT

has always been and continues to be the focus of criticisms from different

parties in almost all the political terms, due to its organizational

functioning structure directly influenced by the decisions and determination of

political authorities, its financial revenues based on public resources,

personnel employment policy, slow-functioning bureaucratic structure and its

understanding of journalism based on protocol rules. In addition to all these

criticisms, in this study we shall also try to shed light on the relations

between the public service broadcasting model in Turkey and the political

authority, or in other words, the systematic oppression and control mechanism

built by the political authorities on the public service broadcasting corporation

and the problematic reflections of these on the contents of the broadcasts. The

method of this study is based on a critical analysis to be made from the

perspective of media-politics-government relationship.