Ethics of sports print Journalism in Turkey

Particularly, recently, sports journalists have begun to view violence in sport as problematical. In fact, sports writers tend to view sports-related violence such as fights on field, deep impact on field, bombardment. At this point, this research examines: the languages of sports reporting in terms of ethics in press. Hürriyet, Zaman, Fotomaç and Fanatik were examined from the point of view of its language especially newspaper headline for a period of 22 consecutive weeks ( 1 January to31 May in 2009). Both Hürriyet and Zaman have an high average daily circulation, the others are two main sports newspapers in Turkey. After examination, headlines revealed the images to be focused on five major metaphorical complexes: violence metaphor, military metaphor, machine metaphor, animal metaphor and meteorogly metaphor. The findings presented here, newspaper reporting the subtle metaphorical construction of sport as violent, militaristic, animal and robotic, suggest that concern also needs to be extended to the language in which sports are reported. Recent commentary from sports journalists had drawn attention to the doubtful ethics of accepting as normal the violence that has accompanied the increasing professionalization of sport. Research has demostrated that sports journalists have specifics ethical codes to adhere to norms in the journalistic profession.