"It's chaos": affective spaces of journalism in Istanbul.

This article examines how urban spaces in Istanbul, Turkey, shape journalists' professional identities, practices, and affective attachments, based on nine months of ethnographic fieldwork with journalists from diverse media outlets. It highlights the impact of Istanbul’s authoritarian neoliberal urban renewal policies—characterized by gentrification, dispossession, and spatial segregation—on the physical and social environments of journalism, including the decline of the historic Bab-I Ali publishing district and the relocation of media outlets to peripheral, industrial areas. The study emphasizes how these spatial changes contribute to journalists’ experiences of professional isolation, weakened solidarity, and challenges to journalistic norms such as objectivity and community engagement. Ultimately, the article argues that journalism in Istanbul is deeply embedded in and shaped by the city’s evolving urban landscape, reflecting broader socio-political dynamics and tensions within Turkey.