Bağımsız Adayların Facebook’ta Siyasal İletişim Stratejileri: 2019 Türkiye Yerel Seçimleri Örneği

OpenAlex Turkish

Transferring the views and opinions of the citizens to the political sphere and allow political actors to gain power, elections are considered as one of the most important components of a democratic political order. It is related to the existence of an effective political communication process to influence the political choices of the electorate and ensure its sustainability. Political communication where political actors use techniques of advertisement, propaganda and public relations to introduce themselves to the electorate and gain public support, has undergone transformational change with the development of communication technologies. Political actors and candidates make use of new media platforms not only to run promise oriented election campaigns but also to communicate interactively through engaging in direct dialogue during election periods where they can inform the electorate at any time and any way and get instant feedback without the need for conventional media. New media, particularly Web 2.0 technologies including social media are the only channel where independent candidates who lack the support of a political party and do not receive conventional media coverage are able to reach their potential voters. This study aims to discover the use of Facebook by mayoral candidates who cannot appear on conventional media to run their election campaigns during Local Elections held in March 31, 2019. Within the scope of the research, Facebook posts and interactions of 8 metropolitan mayoral candidates sampled by multiphase sampling between the dates of 4 March-01 April 2019 are analysed through using quantitative and categorical content analysis.