It’s Much More than a Park – Mainstream and Social Media Coverage of Istanbul’s Gezi Park

When I first heard about Gezi Park in Istanbul (May 28, 2013), most media portrayed an environmental story—protesters against a government plan to replace one of the last urban green spaces with a shopping center. At the same time, on Facebook, one source kept posting, “It’s not about a park.” When the movement grew to become clearly anti-governmental, media began quoting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who described protesters as looters and extremists. Really?

Urban parks represent places for free assembly and the exchange of ideas as well as for recreation. This particular Turkish park has additional historic symbolism as a place of resistance. The movement has grown (it’s not about a park but about a repressive government) and involves a cross-section of ideologies and socioeconomic groups. By most all accounts, the protesters have not been involved in vandalism or destruction.

My concern--the fragmented views provided by much of our mainstream media. The Turkish Gezi Park story took place at a time when US media focused on “monster” tornadoes, which caused deaths, injuries and destruction in the Midwest. International news focused on Syria. In Turkey itself, its own media buried the Gezi stories under programming on animals or cooking, according to the Christian Science Monitor and social media posts.

How can we be ensured an accurate perspective of the news? Many of the mainstream media do not fulfill their role as Fourth Estate, or watchdog. Most of us have to dig for stories. Much of my understanding of issues is supplemented by social media—Facebook or blogs or Youtube—all of which provide a less-circulated perspective, the context or links to stories I might have missed that are not about parks per se.