Abstract:

Political campaigns are very important for the political parties and candidates who participate in the election race. The political parties who want to have power at the end of a challenging election process reach the voter masses using various ways and methods. Political advertising is among the ways and methods that will make it easier for voters to reach the audience. With this feature, political advertising plays a key role in the promotion of political parties. Political parties try to deliver political promises through political advertisements that have important functions in determining the direction of elections. Political parties that benefit from political advertising in order to inform and influence voters are also benefiting from the power of political advertising to create an image. In the parliamentary and presidential elections held on June 24, 2018, the parties and presidential candidates took advantage of political advertisements. The election ads of the Ak Party, CHP and MHP, which benefit from political advertising in order to move a step beyond the competitors in the election process and to transmit their messages to the target audience, are the subject of this study. For this purpose, the political advertisements of the AK Party, CHP and MHP, which are intended to provide a majority in parliamentary elections, are evaluated by the content analysis method. The study revealed the differences in political campaigns and message strategies that political parties conduct. The result is that AK Party’s ads are much more than other political parties and often positive content ads are published. The theme of the party advertising is national unity and co-operation. While CHP has given more space to negative content advertisements, it has addressed many topics in its advertisements, from economics to disabled people, from education to rights and freedoms. MHP has highlighted national unity and cohesion by placing positive content in its few ads.

Abstract:

The political campaigns are very important for the political parties and candidates attending the election race. The political parties aiming to achieve the power at the end of a hard election period address their electorate by using different ways and methods. The political advertisements are one of these ways and methods that make easier to reach the electorate. Together with this character, the political advertisements play a key role in introducing the political parties. The political parties try to convey their promises to the voters through the political advertisements, which have important functions in determining the direction of the elections. The political parties benefiting from political advertisements in order to inform and influence the voters also benefit from the political advertisements’ power of creating an image. The parties and presidential candidates benefited from the political advertisements in the parliamentary and presidential elections took place on 24th June 2018. The political TV advertisements used by Ak Parti, CHP, and MHP in order to move ahead of their rivals and to convey their messages to the target audience during the aforementioned election period constitute the subject of present study. For this purpose, the political advertisements of Ak Parti, CHP, and MHP aiming to achieve the majority in parliament are examined using the content analysis method. At the end of this research, the differences between the political campaigns of the political parties and their message strategies were revealed. It was determined that, when compared to those of other parties, the number of AK Parti’s advertisements was higher and they generally incorporate positive messages. The prominent theme in the advertisements of AK Parti is national unity and solidarity. On the other hand, CHP’s advertisements incorporate negative messages and focused on many subjects such as economy, disabled individuals, education, rights, and freedoms. In its limited number of advertisements, MHP emphasized the national unity and solidarity by including positive contents in its advertisements. 

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