Examination of the reticence spiral theory on the basis of social media though the concept of LGBTI+

With the rapid development of Information Technologies, social media has become an important tool for human life. Thanks to the virtual environment in social media, individuals have created new virtual identities in this environment as well as their real lives. Although this virtual door opened by social media seems to give people complete freedom of expression, some research believes that this is not always the case. In this context, LGBTI+ individuals who have been subjected to discrimination and hate speech in their real lives constitute the subject of the research. This study will examine whether LGBTI+ individuals who have been subjected to discrimination and hate speech in their real lives are involved in a spiral of reticence on social media. The German political scientist Elisabeth Noelle theory of the spiral of silence-Neumann developed by according to the theory of spiral of silence, individuals who think that are generally accepted by the public thoughts or ideas, feel free to express their thoughts, when individuals are in the minority who think that that is accepted by the community in order to see or changing or expressing their ideas in that direction, instead of a spiral of silence that you get into. The thesis consists of three parts. In the first part, the characteristics and condition of today's social media platforms are mentioned, starting with traditional media, where the spiral of reticence was first seen. In the second chapter, the content of the reticence spiral theory is discussed and the issue of gender and LGBTI+ is discussed, social media and LGBTI+ individuals are mentioned. In the last section, qualitative research was carried out and the data was examined comparatively.