R.I.P Şerif Mardin. A very big loss for Social Sciences in Turkey

Going beyond the local polarizations, Prof. Mardin paved the way for recent developments in social sciences in Turkey. Şerif Mardin – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Şerif_Mardin Şerif Mardin (born 1927) is a prominent Turkish sociologist, political scientist, academic and thinker. In a 2008 publication, he was referred to as the “doyen of Turkish sociology.”[1] I did benefit from every … Read more

My piece at @HuffPostBlog “A Few Thoughts on the Decision to Eliminate Evolution From Turkey’s High School Curriculum 

A Few Thoughts on the Decision to Eliminate Evolution From Turkey’s High School Curriculum 07/12/2017  By Prof. Erkan Saka The ruling Turkish government rarely uses explicit Islamic reasoning to intervene in Turkey’s secular life. Instead, taxation, age restrictions, and zoning regulations have been used to support the restriction of alcoholic beverages in the country. In … Read more

A few notes on the #GlobalFact4 summit…

A major summit on fact-checking just ended and I am glad to have attended and have witnessed many pioneers of the field. Here are a few notes. They are not necessarily structured. Also some ideas inspired by the summit. First of all, I am sure this summit could not be that effective without Alexios Mantzarlis‘ organization. … Read more

#GlobalFact4 takes place in Madrid on July 5-7 at @CampusMadrid and I very glad to be part of it….

I am glad to be attending this intensive conference. I am not a speaker but an observer here, there are so many practitioners all over the world. Doğruluk Payı and Teyit.org representatives from Turkey also attend and present their experiences. Hopefully I will blog about the conference until the end. Global Fact is back! The Global … Read more

I had my first PhD student graduate last week…

Last week we had many thesis defenses in our PhD program in Communication Sciences and MA program in Media and Communication Systems. Some of my students whom I was the adviser, successfully defended their theses. Sedef Erdoğan Giovanelli is special for me because she was my very first PhD student and she successfully defended her … Read more

17 Mayıs’ta Stockholm İnternet Forumu paralel etkinliği İstanbul’da (#SIF17IST) – SosyalKafa

Efendim İsveç Konsolosluğu’yla başlayan diyalog sonucunda bu önemli olayın bir ayağının da İstanbul’da olmasına karar verdik. SosyalKafa ve Korsan Parti Hareketinden arkadaşların ağırlıklı olarak destek vereceği etkinlik organizasyonuz Bilgi Sosyal Kuluçka Merkezi’nin ev sahipliğinde ve benim Dijital Kültürler dersi öğrencilerinin organizasyonuyla gerçekleşecek. Önce bu forum ne anlama geliyor, bu yılki ağırlıklı tema ne ona bakalım:… … Read more

Research Project Infographic (Media in Political Transition in the Southern Mediterranean after 2011) released

University of Cambridge – Al Jazeera Media Project has recently finished. I was proudly part of Turkish team. Today an infographic summing up research and its finding released on Al Jazeera website. Please have a look A long term research project is giving more fruits. Turkey team’s articles will be published next year. Morocco teams are … Read more

Kitabımız çıktı! “Dijitalleşen Gazetecilik İçin Yeni İş Modelleri” #MedyaEkonomisi

Şimdilik buradan satın alınabiliyor ama muhtemelen yakında diğer kitap sitelerinde de olacak.  Yeni Medya Çalışmaları serimizin dördüncü kitabı, medya ekonomisini yakından ilgilendiren bir temaya dayanıyor. Dijitalleşmenin gazeteciliğe etkisi, ülkemizde birçok yönüyle incelendi ancak geleneksel ya da yeni medya tabanlı gazetecilik girişimlerinin ayakta kalabilmesi için hayati önem taşıyan iş modelleri konusu görece az irdelenmişti. Bu çalışma … Read more

Wiki projelerimize katkı çağrısı

SeçimTürk 2-3 yıldır çeşitli derslerde üzerinde çalıştığımız Seçim Veritabanı projemizde şu anda Referandum sayfalarına ağırlık vereceğiz. Dijital Kültürler dersimden bir grupla bu hafta çalışmalara başlayacağız. Önceki seçimlerin sayfaları istediğim kadar ansiklopedik olmadı ama her zaman dönüp üzerine çalışabiliriz.   The Gezi Archive Gezi Olayları/Direnişi ile ilgili en büyük dijital arşivi oluşturabilir miyiz diye yola çıktık. Daha yapılacak çok … Read more

This semester’s syllabus for my “Theories of New Media (COMM 720)” course

I have restructured my doctoral course this semester. Renewed most of the readings with the most up to date works I could find. Selection of topic are of course arbitrary to some extent but since I track special issues in relevant  journals, the syllabus still offers many of the most current debates. The course is at our PhD program, … Read more

Today, Erkan has passed the exam to become an associate professor

After a two-hour session today at Communication School, Marmara University, the jury members seen in this photo approved that I can have title, Associate Professorship. Jury members are appointed by Higher Education Council according to the field you apply for the title. I got my title on Journalism and Media Studies. Despite my disciplinary transition from Anthropology to … Read more

This semester’s issue on my “Issues in Cyberculture Studies (MED 512)” course: “Web history and digital archiving”

This semester I have mobilized my classes and academic environment to create a database for Turkey’s internet history. There will be a series of works attached to this project (including a wiki based database) but in the mean time in one of my graduate level courses at Istanbul Bilgi University, Communication School, I have decided to take a … Read more

11 Mart’ta Başkanlık Referandumu Paneli (by @tsie2016)

  Kaynak: Başkanlık Referandumu Paneli | Başkanlık Referandumu Paneli

III. Ulusal Yeni Medya Çalışmaları Kongresi 9-10 Mart 2017’de Cer Modern Ankara’da…

III. Ulusal Yeni Medya Çalışmaları Kongresi 9-10 Mart 2017’de Cer Modern Ankara’da… III. Ulusal Yeni Medya Çalışmaları Kongresi, Alternatif Bilişim Derneği tarafından 9-10 Mart 2017 tarihlerinde Ankara’da düzenlenecek. Kongrenin ana teması ise “Hak odaklı yeni medya”. İnternet’in ve yeni medya teknolojilerinin gelişmesi ve artan baskı ortamı sonucu yeni medya ortamları bir “hak mücadeleleri” alanına dönüştü. … Read more

My piece at Deutsche Welle: “Turkey′s dream of a national search engine” 

On the difference between rhetoric and practice with regard to Turkey’s national search engine project. Turkey’s communications minister Ahmet Arslan recently announced in an interview with a local TV station that Turkey was “building a domestic search engine and email service compatible with national culture and values”. But he did not expand on what “national … Read more