The strategies of elections that have been used in social media: 2018 Presidential election example

In the political communication, various transformations have been experienced as one of the areas that are most affected by the developments in new communication technologies. With the use of new communication technologies in the field of political communication, election campaigns have gained a different dimension. Political parties and leaders have benefited from the advantages of new communication technologies due to the high cost of the traditional media with various disadvantages. In this context, the social media's simultaneous and interactive structure and high cost-free structure have enabled politicians to concentrate on this field. This platform, which makes it possible to reach large audiences in a short period of time, also provides the possibility of mutual communication. In the political communication, the structure of the traditional media, which left the target group passive, disappeared with the interactive feature of the social media. Politicians have had the chance to get feedback at the same time, while providing the public with various messages through social media. The fact that social media is highly user-based and is one of the most important areas for influencing people has caused politicians to continue their efforts to convince people through strategic messages in these elections. Election campaigns in election periods and election strategies implemented by parties are part of the electoral struggle. It is impossible for the election campaigns of the parties to be implemented without using social media tools in today's communication age. Social media has been an area where political parties and political leaders express themselves, interact with each other, try to convince the voters, in short, that political communication is strategically maintained. In this thesis, it was investigated how the candidates used their election campaigns via Twitter, one of the social media tools, and which strategic message content they used in the presidential elections held on June 24, 2018. The statements of the candidates who used the Twitter campaign in the twitter foot were analyzed. The level of interaction of candidates and the issues and strategies they emphasized during campaign periods were generally similar. At the same time, the candidates of the candidates for persuading the people were determined and commented on the strategies of the candidates.