PIERRE BOURDIEU AND THE TELEVISION FIELD: A FIELD RESEARCH IN MAINSTREAM BROADCASTING IN TURKEY

The structure-action theory of sociolog pierre bourdieu that is shaped in the context of the concepts habitus and field builds a bridge between instrumentalism and structuralism without sacrificing the subject and the object. the theory of bourdieu is also valuable for autonomy, sensational news values, competitiveness in broadcast journalism which is an important issue in sociology. in this study a field research about mainstream television journalism in turkey is conducted from the departure point of bourdieu’s structureaction theory. in the context of the research, participant observations are realized in fox tv, tgrt haber, kanal d, tv8 and stv haber in istanbul. fox tv is chosen because of the american capital it is based on, kanal d for its high rating numbers, tv8 for its boutiquish structure, tgrt haber and stv haber for being news channels. the sensational news contents, advertising and rating expectations are revealed. it is attempted to display how those structural elements of newsmaking process constrain the autonomy and independence zones of the journalists. it is claimed that those structural elements provide no oppurtunity for the dynamics of opposing and emancipation of the journalists.