Politics - new media relationship 2015-2018 general elections

The thesis makes an assessment of the current state of the new media-politics relationship by focusing on the leaders' use of social media on Twitter during the election campaigns prior to the 2015-2018 general elections. It is also intended to draw a general framework by addressing the impact of new media on politics from a historical perspective. The aim of this thesis is to show whether there is a simultaneous development and adaptation in political communication efforts with the innovations in communication technologies by reviewing the social media usage of leaders during the election period as data. In this context, the main contribution of this research to the literature is to reveal how and to what extent the innovations provided by the new media are used by politicians and to make various determinations about how these innovations are received by voters. Prior to the 2015 and 2018 general elections, secondary data and descriptive analysis methods, which are quantitative research methods, were used in order to examine these data with a holistic perspective, taking into account the historical process. In this framework, the study consists of Introduction, New Communication Technologies and New Media, Political Communication, The Impact of New Media in Türkiye and Conclusion chapters. New media and new communication technologies are discussed in their historical process, and political communication and propaganda activities and techniques that have developed in parallel with this are briefly evaluated in Türkiye. The differences between traditional media and new media are emphasized. The general characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of social media are presented, and the use of Twitter - as the most widespread and effective social media platform - by political leaders, especially during the 2015-2018 General Elections, is focused on. Based on the data obtained, graphs and tables were prepared and a general evaluation was made. Key words: New Media, Social Media, Twitter, Web 2.0, Industry 4.0, Political Communication, Information Technologies.