The relationship of new media and democracy: A study on the new media's potential for functioning democracy

In the age of information and communication, new media technologies have entered all areas of social life and declared their presence on a global scale as an important infrastructural element. The new media, which is becoming more and more widespread in parallel with developments in network systems and mobilization technologies, influences both daily life practices and social life. It is the starting point of the study that the new media, with its infrastructural facilities and technical equipment, affects the democracy and its operation processes as a part of the political field. Representative democracy, the most common form of implementation of modern democracies faces certain imperfections to its operation processes. In this study, the potential of the new media technologies to functionalize the democracy by developing solutions to the imperfections of the democratic system has been revealed in the axis of public sphere, free communication atmosphere, political participation, organization activities and political election campaigns have been put forward. In this study, dominated by a techno-optimistic approach, a multi-faceted assessment of the relationship between new media and democracy has been made. Keywords: New Media, Democracy, Alternative Public Sphere, Political Participation, Organization Activities.