NEWS FOLLOW IN PERIODS OF CRISIS

Abstract

Crises faced in political, social and economic context have different characteristics if compared to normal times. Nowadays, "news" has an important position among the media contents in those periods, when collective information flow is reflected through the media. On the other hand, during the periods of crisis, when the need for information is expected to increase, the course of news following is crucial. In this context, the question of this study is the kind of quality the news following has in periods of crisis and whether it makes a difference in terms of quantity when compared to the normal times. The research, which aims to reveal qualitative conclusions by obtaining quantitative data on news following through a questionnaire study conducted on the academicians, has been applied to the academicians who work at Erciyes University. As a result of the research, it was determined that the mass media were followed up more than the normal times during the periods of crisis. During periods of political and social crises, when the individuals intensively experience the timeliness, closeness and importance criterion of the event, information demand and news following get more intense than the other times. Keywords: Periods of crisis, media, news following