Social media in Turkish politics within the framework of political parties and political leaders

The relationship between theory and practice is worth investigating with regards to political communication in today's new media communication technologies, Internet and social media efforts including the diversification of social media and politics. To this end, this study examines the use of social media platforms in Turkish political parties (AKP, BDP, CHP and MHP) and its leaders (Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Selahattin Demirtaş, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and Devlet Bahçeli) in the GNAT (Grand National Assembly of Turkey) for the first quarter of 2013. Using a content analysis method, the study deals with new media theories and social media practices covering type of use, utilization ratio, usage policy and efforts to interact in Turkish politics. The study is composed of five sections. The introduction includes problem identification, research questions, the importance of the study, assumptions, limitations and definitions. The literature review covers issues such as communication, political communication, new media, the Internet and social media. The study ends with the findings, interpretations and conclusions sections. Key Words: Industrial media, new media, social media, political communication and mass communication theories