Bibliometric Analysis of Turkish Journalism Theses and Dissertations: Research Approach Transformation

Abstract

The rapidly changing landscape in the media sector, driven by the dynamic interplay of technology, communication systems, and societal influences, is causing a profound paradigm shift in academic research focus. This study investigates the landscape of journalism theses and dissertations in Turkey, spanning years, universities, types, subjects, keywords, and methodologies. Our approach employs bibliometric analysis to illuminate the transformation in research strategies within the journalism field. We collected data from the Council of Higher Education Thesis Center, where all graduate theses and doctoral dissertations are submitted through institutional channels using a web scraping technique. Over 36 years (1985–2021), 1,709 graduate studies were authored in journalism in Turkey. Our findings reveal that Istanbul University and Marmara University were prolific publishers of doctoral dissertations and master's theses, respectively. Predominant interdisciplinary themes revolve around communication sciences, sociology, and political communication. Notably, content analysis, discourse analysis, and field research have emerged as the primary research methodologies in journalism.