Digital sovereignty: Study of political parties' twitter account according to dialogical communication in 2014 local elections

Along with the developments on new communication technologies, the ways of communication also changed. This study aims to reveal the role of new communication technologies, basically social media, within the concept of political communication. As the democratization effect of media is laid on internet nowadays, the study discusses the role of internet on the improvement of deliberative democracy within the concepts of political communication and social media. Theories about information society, social media, political communication, deliberative democracy and dialogue concepts are main constituents of this thesis and the relation between internet and the evolution of dialogue with the sovereign power are surveyed. Some research claims that social media renew monologue to dialogue in political communication and thus it democratizes the communication process. This thesis' aim is to recognize if social media really establish deliberative democracy and if it is possible in this new technology for the citizen to build a real dialogue with the sovereign power. For this specific purpose, the study analyzes Twitter usage practices of Turkish political parties with a content analysis of tweets according to dialogical communication principles framework. Analysis shows that political parties are weak in terms of dialogue and uses the social media as conventional media to spread their ideology. Keywords: Information society, new communication technologies, social media, Twitter, political communication, democracy, dialogue, dialogical communication.