Social media as a tool of political communication: 2023 Presidential Election candidates' social media analysis

With the developing information and communication technologies, many innovations have occurred in mass media. Social, cultural and political areas have been significantly affected by these innovations. Nowadays, apart from the existing mass media tools in the field of political communication, social media is now active. While individuals actively use social media in normal times, they actively use social media on various platforms during election periods to get information and follow political actors and provide a daily flow of information. Previously, political actors carried out their campaigns during election periods through mass media such as television, radio, newspapers and magazines, in return for certain costs. Today, in addition to the tools I have mentioned, social media now offers the opportunity to reach many more voters at the same time in a much more cost-effective and faster way. In this study, the use of social media and Twitter platform by presidential candidates for political communication in the 2023 Turkish Presidential elections was examined and the extent to which the interactions received from individuals were reflected in the election results was investigated. Keywords: Communication, Election, New Media, Participation, Political Communication, Politics, Public Relations, Social Media