The role of social media in political communication

This thesis study was designed to examine the relationship between the participants' perceptions of the political, influence of the social media, taking into account the demografic characteristics and the internet and social media usage characteristics. In order to meet this aim, data were collected from a total of 531 participants, 376 face to face and 155 online in Aksaray, according to the convenience sampling method based on the quantitative research method. The collected data were analyzed with various statistical techniques such as descriptive statistics, Factor Analysis, One Way (ANOVA) and Multi Way (Factorial) Analysis of Variance, Pearson Correlation Analysis, Simple Linear Regression Analysis. The results of the analysis showed that the participants had high level of statistically positive relationships between the perceptions of the political influence of the social media and the political communication behaviors of the social media. Results also indicate that the basic variables discussed in this study differ depending on participants' some demografic characteristics, personel charecteristics and levels of internet and social media usage.