New surveillance paradigms in the COVİD-19 era: Critical discourse analysis on a cross-secti̇onal sample of Health Minister Fahrettin Koca's twitter posts

This study is set forth with reference to the inquiry that daily information sharing of Fahrettin Koca on Twitter regarding the course of the Covid-19 epidemic has led to the formation of new surveillance paradigms. The study aims to make the discursive frameworks of these new surveillance paradigms visible in terms of the exploratory nature of critical linguistics. The study aims at discussing the discursive establishment of the perception of being observed on the axis of power, control and individuality. The linguistic acquis and the directive power of discourse are discussed with an interdisciplinary approach in the study. In most of the information sharing, the act of surveillance as a subtext is organized on the basis of the protection of human health. Accordingly, the discursive framework affirms the legitimacy of surveillance; surveillance activities are based on a rational context by being affirmed in a way that does not leave any gaps in time and space. While the surveillance and control phenomena operate within the framework of classification and characterization of individuals, they are also absolutized in the context of an informational domination that is continuous within a statistical scheme. On the other hand, follow-up is carried out through digital applications such as Hes Code, which makes possible a digital supervision society paradigm in which individual processes are disciplined with psychological deterrence policies. As a matter of fact, the absolutization of the perception of danger by the new biopolitical surveillance power over human health reveals the affirmation of surveillance and supervision and it generates social consent to surveillance and control.