(Bloomberg) — YouTube is where Turks are turning for answers on the lira and the economy that they can no longer find in the country’s mostly neutered traditional media.
From renowned economists to business journalists displaced from newspapers and television, a crop of pontificators is seizing upon fears among Turks still unsettled by the currency shock last summer and months of market turmoil that followed.
No-frills videos — with titles such as “Why will the dollar be at 10 liras?” — are racking up more than half a million views each, equivalent to about a quarter of the estimated average daily circulation of all Turkish newspapers combined.
“The perception is that we are unable to speak our minds on TV, but that we are free of that constraint online,” said Mert Yilmaz, a director of Istanbul-based brokerage Noor CM who has almost 90,000 subscribers on a YouTube channel he’s been running for more than a year.
His most popular video — “My last warning to those who have business with the dollar” — has netted over 580,000 clicks. “If your title is about the currency, viewer numbers surge,” Yilmaz said.
What ordinary Turks think about the lira is increasingly critical to the financial stability of the Middle East’s biggest economy. With foreign investors spooked by the government’s handling of a months-long crisis, the currency’s prospects largely hinge on where Turkish companies and households stash their 2.2 trillion liras ($372 billion) in savings.
Local buyers drove their stockpile of dollars and euros to a record as they sought a hedge against rampant inflation and uncertainty before elections in March. Hoarding resumed this month, with foreign-currency deposits rising to a new all-time high. The lira is the world’s third-worst performer this year against the dollar with a loss of about 12%.
Speculation about the lira is blossoming in an information vacuum created by policies that have cast a chill over the news industry. Turkey remains the world’s biggest jailer of journalists, and all but one of the top 10 selling newspapers are controlled by companies close to the government run by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party. The owner and some staff of the only major newspaper outside the ruling party’s sphere of influence are facing trial on terrorism charges.
The result is a media echo chamber that frequently produces near-identical headlines. Not surprisingly, readership is in decline, with the daily total circulation of newspapers in the country of 82 million averaging 2.1 million as of last week, down by more than half from 2011.
It’s a void YouTubers are only too happy to fill.
“The AK Party’s monopoly over the media has been broken,” said Atilla Yesilada, an economist at GlobalSource Partners in Istanbul. “The youth especially has no more use for mainstream media, they seek information online.”
With several prominent economists forced out as columnists or television commentators, Yesilada launched his YouTube channel in July and says he was overwhelmed by viewer interest. Boasting over 250,000 subscribers, his most watched video — about an election rerun in Istanbul — was viewed more than 300,000 times.
“It’s only natural that people seek reliable information” when there’s pressure on journalists, said Ceren Sozeri, an academic at Galatasaray University in Istanbul. “But there’s a pitfall: How can you trust someone who gives you a currency prediction? And how can that person be made accountable if that prediction fails?”
As Turkey’s currency roller-coaster continues, people craving lira advice may turn to Selcuk Gecer, maker of arguably the most sensationalist videos with more than 150,000 subscribers. He claims credit for being among the first to draw attention to the central bank’s reserves, which has become a major economic issue.
“What I do is journalism,” said Gecer, a former television and newspaper journalist. “The media has completely lost the trust of the people.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Taylan Bilgic in Istanbul at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at [email protected], Paul Abelsky, Lin Noueihed
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