Social media in political communication: Twitter use of party leaders without a party group

The aim of this research is to analyze the use of social media in political communication through the use of Twitter by party leaders who do not have a group in the parliament. In this context, political communication was carried out through newspapers, magazines, radio and television, which were expressed as traditional media tools until the 2000s. In the contemporary period, new media applications have begun to replace traditional media applications. In this direction, the prominent application in political communication is Twitter. Twitter stands out both in terms of sharing short and slogan-like texts and in terms of visual and video sharing opportunities. When political communication is perceived as promoting one's own political opinion on the one hand, and listening to voter groups and attracting them on the other hand; In the context of this importance, the research examines the use of Twitter by party leaders who do not have a group in the parliament. The scope of the research is; Analyzing the official Twitter pages of the Great Unity Party-BBP Chairman Mustafa Destici, Democratic Left Party-DSP Chairman Önder Aksakal, Felicity Party-SP Chairman Temel Karamollaoğlu and Vatan Party-VP Chairman Doğu Perinçek between 1-31 March 2019 limited to. Among the tweets, tweets that received more interaction were selected. Selected tweets were analyzed with critical discourse analysis, which is one of the qualitative research methods. Critical discourse analysis is an interdisciplinary examination of discourses from various aspects. In critical discourse analysis, language is considered as a social practice. Therefore, discourse also shapes the public sphere. In this context, critical discourse analysis; It critically examines how power and hegemony are embodied, constructed and legitimized in the use of language. In this research, critical discourse analysis is used to analyze the Twitter posts of political leaders. As a result of the research, it was determined that all four political leaders did not use Twitter effectively and used it unilaterally. However, among the four political leaders, it was seen that Karamollaoğlu and Perinçek established political interaction more successfully on Twitter. In this context, political leaders need to use the features on Twitter much better. They should also share their opinions on current social issues on Twitter. It is important for the voters to instantly indicate their solutions to their problems on Twitter, in order to ensure communication via Twitter.