The reflection of political, economic and social structure on election posters: An examination on the examples of DSP, ANAP, MHP, and AK Parti in 2002 Turkish general elections

Elections, the emergence of which date back to Ancient Greece, are an important tool in democratic regimes in terms of determining the rulers and making decisions in the country's administration. Today, the practice of direct democracy has become almost impossible due to the increasing population and expanding country borders. As a result, with the implementation of the representative democracy model, political parties emerged in order to undertake the task of representing the people. These political parties carry out some propaganda and election activities during the election periods to have a say in the administration by taking the people's votes. They use various propaganda and advertising tools in these studies. The poster is one of these tools. Posters are among the most frequently preferred tools that have been used since the mass communication did not develop that much. Posters contribute to presenting the desired message in the shortest way. It is possible to see the traces of the period they were in in the expressions or symbols used on the posters. Based on this approach in the thesis, research will be carried out on the reflection of political, economic, and social structure on the election posters used by political parties during election periods. The main purpose of the study is to analyze the advertisement posters used by political parties as a propaganda tool in the elections within the framework of semiotics; The aim of this study is to analyze the extent to which the political, economic, and social structure in Turkey is taken into consideration while preparing the election posters and to what extent it is reflected in the slogans, visuals, and texts on the posters. In the study of Turkey, among the political parties that participated in the 2002 General Elections, Democratic Left Party, Motherland Party, and Nationalist Movement Party were the parties that were examined because they were the political parties that formed the coalition government before the 2002 General Elections, while the Justice and Development Party was the political party that won the 2002 General Elections. As a result of the study, it was concluded that the political, economic and social structure was taken into account by the political parties while preparing the election posters and it was significantly related to the slogans, images, and texts used in the posters.