Political communication in digital media and generation Z university students: A research on online political participation in Istanbul

Technological developments lead to both sociological transformations and changes in individual habits. When we look at the advances in communication technologies, especially in digital communication technologies, it is argued that the use of data and the developments in artificial intelligence algorithms have a power of change that covers all social life. Today, thanks to the use of data mining and machine learning on social media platforms, all personal data of individuals have become accessible. The effective use of these data has also begun to transform political communication. These developments both caused the transformation of existing political propaganda methods and started to change the political participation behaviors of individuals. The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of personal digital data and post-truth content use in political communication on the online political participation of Generation Z. For this purpose, hypotheses have been established on three pillars: social media usage, perception of online information trust and personalized digital data security perception. Thus, in the study, the effects of the use of personal data and fake content in political communication on social media platforms, which became widespread with the development of digital communication technologies, on the online political participation of Generation Z were investigated. In this study, cross-sectional research was chosen from the general survey models, and the online survey technique was used as the research technique. Snowball sampling was used as the sampling technique, and data were collected through an online survey from 356 social media user university students aged 18-24 studying in Istanbul. In the multiple regression test, it was seen that the independent variables were positively and significantly related to the dependent variable, online political participation. From the data obtained, it was concluded that the participants were not indifferent to the political agenda, but showed a passive online political participation behavior, in addition, they were worried that their personal digital data would be used in cases where they did not give their consent, and that they were not completely sure of the accuracy of the online political content they encountered. These results, in relation to each other, show that young people both enter the spiral of silence of the digital age and feel the pressure created by the concept of the surveillance society.