Social media as populist discourse means: the use of twitter of mayoral candidates in the 2019 Local Elections

Although populism, which has risen in the 21st century, literally means populism, it is a phenomenon that emerges on the basis of we - they classification by dividing the society into two opposite poles. In populism, we are with the good; they are identified with the bad. This polarization of the society and the marginalization of a group constitutes a potential situation for Turkey, as in many democratic countries. In this context, the present study aimed to identify populist elements in the context of local elections in Turkey, a country where the discourse forms of populism can be observed; In this context, an evaluation was made on the social media posts of the candidates. While studying the thesis, qualitative research method was preferred and discourse analysis technique was used; The method used by Sen & Altın (2020) and Engesser et al. (2017) was used. Textual findings from social media show that populist elements are actively present in Turkish politics. Although it is difficult to define politicians as populists based on these findings alone, the presence of populist elements identified in their discourse reveals the tendency towards populism.