‘The first to report wins’: The McDonaldization of digital journalism in Turkey

Abstract

Ritzer’s McDonaldization theory is based on the idea that the business model of the McDonald’s has exceeded the context of restaurants and reached almost all aspects of social life. The presence of McDonaldization is still felt in many different business lines around the world. In this study, it is aimed to discuss whether the traces of McDonaldization are seen in digital journalism in Turkey. Within the scope of the study, which is exploratory rather than generalizing, semi-structured interviews were conducted with news editors from Turkey’s top three most visited news websites, according to SimilarWeb’s November 2019 data. The data obtained were subjected to thematic analysis. Accordingly, in digital journalism in Turkey, there are traces of efficiency, calculability, predictability, control and irrationality of rationality which constitute the dimensions of McDonaldization. It has been emphasized that the McDonaldization theory has the potential to explain the problems of digital journalism in Turkey, such as the decrease in the quality of news, the standardization of news websites and the alienation of news editors from their own products.