The role of social networks in political participation: A research on university students

The concept of political participation has continued to develop by showing different developments over the time. Political participation is the process that under affect of the activities carrie dout both in the localand general political spheres, the nation taket he control of the government in different waysor politically put pressure upon the parties in powerand they directly or in directly participate in the political processan dcreate variou seffects. In thi sprocess, the public can give an opini ona bout a decision that willaffec thim/her before oraftert he proces starts. There are signifi cantin novative developments being emerged in the context of political participation tools such as information and communication technologies and digital technologies. Social networks are included in the setools. Social networks are all kinds of tools, systems and soft ware that are used as community-based channels for interaction, contents haring and colla boration. Social networks are web-based activities that allo windi vidualstos hare in formati on about them selves and to see the other's in formation. This study mainlya imsto in vestigatewhet her the technological developments and Social Networks which are mostly being used in daily life of the students affect the political participation of the Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University's Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences. The interaction of political participation and social networks definition, its characteristics, how it emerged, and some samples of the relationship between them being searc hed fromthe archives were added to the study. As a result of this survey, a questionnaire consisting of 31 questions excluding demographic questions was prepared. In order to interpret this questionnaire, reliability, validity, normality, frequency, anova, chi-square and t tests were applied. In the study; social networks are frequently used by university students, these uses increase students' interest in politics however, it was concluded that social networks were not effective in the active political participation behaviors of students in general. Keywords: Politics, Political Participation, Social Networking, Students