Erkan Saka

Professor and media researcher at Bilgi University. His work focuses on digital anthropology, new media, social media politics, and algorithms.

Türkiye’de Kripto Para Kullanımı ve Sosyal Yansımaları

The New Threshold of Digital Finance: Cryptocurrency Usage in Turkey and Its Social Repercussions

The use of cryptocurrencies in Turkey is examined in the context of economic crises, daily practices and multi-actor social assembly through Erkan Saka’s work

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Algoritmik Cinsiyet Ayrımcılığı

Why Algorithmic Gender Discrimination is the Most Invisible Problem of the Digital Age

As digital systems permeate every aspect of our lives, an invisible problem is quietly growing:

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assemblage

Invisible Bonds of the Modern World: The Concept and Uses of Assemblage in Sociology

The concept of assemblage in sociology is addressed through the analysis of modern social, technological and emotional assemblages through the work of Marcus and Saka.

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  • Saka, E. (2022). Researching Political Trolls as Instruments of Political Conservatism in Turkey: A Historical Framework and Methodological Reflections on a Discourse Community. In The Routledge Companion to Media Anthropology. Routledge.
  • Saka, E. (2021). Networks of Political Trolling in Turkey after the Consolidation of Power Under the Presidency (pp. 240-255). In Digital Hate. The Global Conjuncture of Extreme Speech. Indiana University Press.
  • Saka, Erkan. 2020. “Cryptocurrency Usage in Turkey.” Anthropology News, September 11, 2020. DOI: 10.14506/AN.1491.
  • Saka, Erkan (2020). “Big data and gender-biased algorithms.” In The International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media, and Communication. Wiley Blackwell.
  • Saka, E. (2019). Social Media and Politics in Turkey. A Journey through Citizen Journalism, Political Trolling, and Fake News. Lexington Books.
  • Saka, E. (2020). “Turkey.” In The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society, Vol. 5, 1792–1795.
  • Furman, I., Saka, E., Yıldırım, S., & Elbeyi, E. (2019). News Coverage of the Gulf Crisis in the Turkish Mediascape. International Journal Of Communication, 13.
  • Saka, E. (Ed.). (2019). Turkey Internet History. Alternative Informatics Association.
  • Erkan Saka (2018). Social Media in Turkey as a Space for Political Battles: AKTrolls… Middle East Critique.
  • Saka, E. (2018). Citizen journalism and protest movements. In Rethinking Ideology… Routledge.
  • Saka, E. (2017). Tracking digital emergences in the Aftermath of Gezi Park Protests. Research and Policy on Turkey.
  • Saka, E. (2015). Integrating New Media into Higher Education. In Digital Transformations in Turkey.
  • Marcus George E. & Erkan Saka (2006). “Assemblage.” Theory, Culture & Society, 23(2/3): 101-109.
  • Saka, E. (2022). Metaverse and Journalism. NewsLabTurkey.
  • Saka, E. (2021). An Overview of Digital Ethnography Literature. Strata, 8, 71-84.
  • Saka, E. (2021). A Critical Approach to Predictive Algorithms in the Context of Policing Algorithms.
  • Saka, E. (2020). Imaginations of Civilization in the Civilization Game.
  • Saka, E. (2020). Digital activism after exciting times. POLITUS.
  • Saka, E. (2019). Internet in Turkey. In Turkey Internet History, pp. 3-70.
  • Saka, E. (2019). Promising areas in rights-based new media studies.
  • Göncü, B., Saka, E., & Sayan, A. (2018). Reading Gezi Park protests… Routledge.
  • Saka, E. (2018). Collective Intelligence and Algorithms.
  • Morva, O., & Saka, E. (Eds.). (2018). Collective Intelligence.
  • Karatas, D., & Saka, E. (2017). Online political trolling… International Journal of Digital Television.
  • Saka, E. (2017). Internet in Turkey.
  • Saka & Göncü (2017). How Turkish PR Professionals and Students Use Digital Resources.
  • Saka, E. (2017). Digital Transformation and Business Models for Journalism.
  • Saka & Ezgin (2016). Digital Diplomacy.
  • Saka & Sayan (2016). What is Big Data?
  • Saka (2015). The Konda Survey.
  • Saka (2016). Aktrolls
  • Saka, Görgülü & Sayan (2015). New Media Studies III.
  • Saka (2015). From Gifting to Crowdsourcing.
  • Saka (2015). News Verification.
  • Valenzuela et al. (2014). The Big Question…
  • Saka (2014). New Media Ethnography.
  • Saka (Ed.) 2013. New Media Studies I.
  • Saka et al. (Eds.) 2014. New Media Studies II.
  • Saka (2014). AK Party’s social media strategy.
  • Saka (2014). Turkish Journalism and the EU Process.
  • Saka (2013). Observations on hacking.
  • Saka (2013). New media after the Boston Marathon.
  • Saka (2012). Public Space and Journalism.
  • Saka (2011). Blogging and youth.
  • Saka (2011). Internet filtering: The Turkish case.
  • Saka (2010). Blaming Others.
  • Dağsalgüler & Saka (2007). Habermas’ Public Sphere.
Projeler

  • EU Commission – Research on Disinformation (Principal Researcher)
  • Al Jazeera Foundation – Media in Political Transition (Researcher)
  • EU – Youth for Habitat Governance Project (Trainer)
  • EU – Scaling up Food & Beverage Networks (Trainer)
  • EU – South East European Media Observatory (Researcher)
  • EU – Social Media & Non-Muslim Minorities (Trainer)

Erkan Saka


Presentations from 2000 to 2022

  • Saka, E. (2022). When does political trolling work? Siegen, Germany.
  • UNESCO MIL Panel (2021).
  • Saka & Kilic (2021). Ethical policies… LMU Munich.
  • Kılıç & Saka (2021). Ethics State of AI Startups…
  • Saka (2021). Digital Archive of Dissent.
  • Saka (2021). Rebuilding Mainstream Media.
  • Saka & Furman (2021). Digital Blessings for Holy Days.
  • Saka (2021). Racial and Gender Biases in Predictive Algorithms.
  • Saka (2021). Fact-checking in Turkey.
  • Saka (2020). Digital Archive of Dissent.
  • Saka, Koçer (2020). Engaged Anthropologists. EASA 2020.
  • Kılıç & Saka (2020). Urban AI & Digital Surveillance.
  • Saka (2020). Disinformation during the Pandemic.
  • Saka (2020). Transmedia and Education.
  • Saka (2020). Digital Anthropology.
  • Saka (2019). Digital Authoritarianism.
  • Saka (2018). Value creation in cryptocurrencies.
  • Saka (2017). Digital Archives as a Problematization Field.
  • Saka (2017). Social Media in Turkey. Al-Jazeera Center.
  • Saka (2016). Citizen Journalists Verification. AAA 2016.
  • Saka (2016). Post-Human Security Issues.
  • Saka (2016). Anthropology & Internet Studies. EASA 2016.
  • Saka (2016). Organ Donation & New Media.
  • Saka (2016). Freedom of Speech Under Attack. Re:publica.
  • Saka (2016). SUNY COIL Center Presentation.
  • Saka (2016). Uses & Potentials of Snapchat.
  • Saka (2016). Digital Media Literacy.
  • Saka (2015). Digital Activism.
  • Saka (2015). Transmedia Experiments.

  • Financial Times (2006)
  • Radikal (2006, 2012)
  • BBC Radio Five (2007)
  • Turkish Daily News (2007)
  • Milliyet (2008, 2009, 2013, 2011)
  • Christian Science Monitor (2008)
  • Süddeutsche Zeitung (2009)
  • RTVE (2010)
  • Le Monde (2010)
  • TRT Haber (2010, 2011)
  • Posta (2010, 2011)
  • CNN Turk (2010, 2012)
  • SKY Turk (2010)
  • Hayat TV (2010, 2013)
  • Habertürk TV (2010, 2011, 2016)
  • Time Out Istanbul (2010)
  • Kanal D – Okan Bayülgen (2010)
  • NTV (2011, 2012)
  • ZETE Newspaper (2011)
  • Evening (2011)
  • Current Law (2011)
  • Hurriyet Daily News (2011)
  • Svenska Dagbladet (2011, 2015)
  • BJK TV (2011)
  • IMC TV (2011, 2014)
  • Yeni Safak (2013)
  • BBC World / BBC Trending (2013, 2014, 2015)
  • Phoenix TV (2013)
  • Birgün (2013)
  • Digital Age (2013)
  • Optimist Magazine (2013)
  • Star TV (2013)
  • Cumhuriyet (2013)
  • Voice of Russia (2013)
  • Stuttgarter Zeitung (2013)
  • BT News (2014)
  • Deutsche Welle (2014, 2015)
  • El Confidencial (2014)
  • Radio MOF (2014)
  • Bloomberg International (2014)
  • Today’s Zaman (2014)
  • Washington Times (2014)
  • USA Today (2015)
  • Al Jazeera America (2015)
  • International Business Times UK (2015)
  • MedNuçe (2015)
  • Kanaltürk (2015)
  • Action (2015)
  • Sabah (2015)
  • Samanyolu TV (2015)
  • Meydan Newspaper (2015)
  • The Point (2016)
  • Arte.tv (2015)
  • The Media Line (2015)
  • Sveriges Radio (2015)
  • NBC News (2014)
  • Public Radio International (2008, 2009, 2014)
  • PRI (2008)
  • The New York Times (2009)
  • Dipnot Tablet / TV (2013, 2014)
  • T24 Articles
  • SosyalKafa censorship news (Yeşil Gazete, Bianet, Medyatava, BirGün, Yurt Gazetesi etc.)
  • Ekşi Sözlük, Santral Sözlük, Uludağ Sözlük, ITU Sözlük

9
3
6
5
3
14
7
IndicatorValue
Research Outputs38
Articles7
Supervised Master’s Theses44
Doctoral Theses Supervised7
WoS Citation Count448
Scopus Citation Count571
WoS h-index3
Scopus h-index5
Projects10
WoS Citation Per Publication74.67
Scopus Citations per Publication43.92
Thesis Supervision (Total)51

Dokümanlar
Atıflar
H-indeks

Profile summary

  • 23 Total documents
  • 6 Publications indexed in Web of Science
  • 6 Web of Science Core Collection publications
  • 0 Preprints
  • 0 Dissertations or Theses
  • 17 Non-indexed publications
  • 97 Verified peer reviews
  • 0 Verified editor records
  • 0 Grants awarded

Web of Science Core Collection metrics

  • 3 H-Index
  • 6 Publications
  • 448 Sum of Times Cited
  • 446 Citing Articles
  • 446 Sum of Times Cited
  • 444 Citing Articles
  • 0 Sum of Times Cited by Patents
  • 0 Citing Patents
  • 0 Sum of Times Cited by Policy
  • 0 Citing Policy Documents

About me

Prof. Dr. olarak İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yeni Medya ve İletişim Bölümü’nde öğretim üyesi olarak görev yapıyor, aynı zamanda İletişim Bilimleri Doktora Programı’nın direktörlüğünü yürütüyorum. Akademik çalışmalarım yeni medya kültürleri, dijital toplumsallık, yapay zekâ ve algoritmik önyargılar ile medya ve siyaset ilişkileri üzerine yoğunlaşıyor.

I completed my undergraduate and graduate studies at Boğaziçi University, Department of Sociology; I received my PhD in anthropology from Rice University. During my academic career, I have been a visiting researcher at UC Irvine and MIT and conducted interdisciplinary research.

Since 2004, I have been maintaining the blog erkansaka.net and producing works focusing on new media cultures within the scope of the SosyalKafa project. My recent publications are shaped around the topics of productive artificial intelligence, social media and political communication.

  • Orcid: 0000-0002-1845-4129
  • Google Scholar ID: by5jPTEAAAAJ&hl
  • Web of Science ResearcherID: J-2665-2019
  • YÖKSİS Researcher ID: 28824
  • Scopus ID: 57199153980

Name Variants

  • Erkan Saka
  • Saka, E.
  • Saka, Erkan

Contact

Get in touch
  • PhD in Anthropology – Rice University, Houston, TX (2001-2009)
  • MA in Sociology – Boğaziçi University (1998-2001)
  • BA in Sociology – Boğaziçi University (1994-1998)
  • Member, Istanbul Bilgi University Field of Excellence – Radicalization (2022- )
  • Coordinator, Bilgi Blockchain Research Group (2022- )
  • Academic Board Member, EU Institute, Istanbul Bilgi University (2021- )
  • Organizing Committee Member – Global Communication in the Age of Computation Propaganda (2021- )
  • Organizing Committee Member – Algorithms in Film, Television and Sound Cultures (2021- )
  • STSTurkey Co-coordinator (2019- )
  • Scientific Board Member – Inet-TR Conferences (2011-2017)
  • Scientific Board Member – New Media Studies Conference (2012-2019)
  • Jury Member – various academic competitions and media awards
  • Reviewer – many international journals (2008-2017)
  • Research Scholar – UC Irvine (2018)
  • Research Scholar – MIT STS Program (2019)
  • Bachelor’s Degree – Media Department
  • MA – Media and Communication Systems
  • PhD – Communication Sciences
  • Digital anthropology
  • New media studies
  • Social media and politics
  • Political trolls, political communication
  • Digital activism
  • Algorithms, algorithmic bias and ethics
  • Digital diplomacy
  • Fact-checking, disinformation
  • Blockchain and crypto communities
  • Internet culture
  • Citizen journalism
  • Digital ethnography
  • Media and technology studies