Rhetorical strategies of politicians on Instagram: 2024 Türkiye Local Election example

This thesis examines the history of rhetoric from antiquity to the present day, discusses the transformation of political rhetoric on social media platforms in the digital age, offers a new perspective on rhetoric, political communication and digitalization, and examines how political discourse and strategies evolve in line with current social and technological dynamics. The study focuses on the rhetorical strategies used by politicians on social media by analyzing the Instagram posts of Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor candidates Murat Kurum and Ekrem İmamoğlu in the context of the 2024 Local Elections in Turkey. Rhetoric has had an important place in political communication throughout history as a basic tool of effective communication and persuasion. With digitalization, rhetorical practices have been reshaped with visuality and instant interaction on social media platforms. In this context, this study examines how politicians develop a strategy and which elements of persuasion they use on the Instagram platform of social media from a rhetorical perspective. The aim of the study is to reveal the rhetorical strategies of politicians in a digitalized and visualized world. The study was conducted using Teun Van Dijk's critical discourse analysis method based on the ethos, pathos and logos elements of political discourse. The findings of the study show that politicians today develop a pathos-oriented and manipulative political rhetorical strategy on Instagram.