Abstract:

This study focuses on the use of Twitter in political communication practices. Twitter uses politicians who are the coalition candidates for the mayority in three major cities in the local elections of 31 March 2019 are the focus of the study. The personal accounts of six politicians on Twitter, which began to become more and more widely used as a political communication medium, were reviewed through their sharing between 1 February and 31 March 2019 from the perspective of interaction and participation. It has been studied how a new mechanism, which has the ability to change the nature of communication with the visual analysis method, affects the political communication processes. In other words, it is questioned whether the transition from a communication with one-way and classical propaganda qualities to an interactive and mutual communication is visible. Research findings show that political communication activities in Turkey are still unable to adapt to the possibilities provided by the new media. This discovery shows that political culture is more dominant than the structural possibilities of new communication mechanisms.

Abstract:

This study focuses on the use of Twitter in political communication practices in Turkey. It explores the use of Twitter by politicians who were candidates for the electoral alliances (The People’s Alliance and Nation Alliance) in three metropolitan municipalities at the local elections of March 31, 2019. During the period from 1 February to 31 March 2019, the personal accounts of six politicians on Twitter, which had begun to be increasingly used as a political communication medium, were examined in terms of interaction and participation. Using a descriptive analysis method, it is investigated how political communication processes were affected by new media such as Twitter, which has the potential to change the quality of communication. In other words, this study examines whether one- way communication with classical propaganda qualities could be transformed into collaborative interaction. Research findings have shown that it is still not possible to adapt to the opportunities offered by new media for political communication practices in Turkey. This shows that the political culture is more dominant than the structural opportunities of new communication media.

Keywords: