Social media and democracy: Comparing Turkey and the USA

Developments in communication technologies increase the possibility of encountering cultures and identities in the world day by day. While it took weeks or even months for an event occurring anywhere in the past to be heard in the rest of the world, the impact dimensions of the event were limited due to this delay. Today, the opposite is the case, and a statement made anywhere in the world can make its impact felt all over the world after a few hours. With the new communication technologies, the speed of cultural, scientific, political and social exchanges has become inevitable. Because people have the opportunity to follow the whole world from where they sit, with new communication technologies and communication networks that know no boundaries. There is no doubt that the form of government that today's societies want to be subject to is democracy. It is also an obvious fact that the media has an important influence on the mental formations, cultural and political structures of today's societies. The main purpose of this study is to discuss the role of the media as one of the most important tools to maximize democracy, which is an ideal management style. In this study, the concepts of democracy that play an active role in the new world order in the global framework are defined and the types of democracy are classified.In addition, new media systems and participatory democracy, which are an outcome of democracy, are also discussed in the context of political communication. As a matter of fact, communication and democracy stand out in the conceptual framework of the research. As a result of this research, both in Turkey and in major European countries and the United States of America (USA) 's political participation has been observed that in the social media effectively used. Social media has become an area that both political parties and media groups take extra care to use. Because, especially in the 2000s, the use of internet and social media has become widespread. In this context, not only parties; It has been observed that all candidates participating in the elections use social media effectively. As a matter of fact, with the knowledge that a significant part of the voters use social media; The use of social media by candidates has turned into an obligation rather than a choice. However, social media plays an active role not only in the promotion and propaganda activities of candidates, but also in shaping democratic attitudes and behaviors. In this context, social media stands out in the establishment of a participatory democracy. From this point of view, the views of democratic values on social media, which is the new communication and media order, were also examined within the scope of the study. US presidential election and political processes in Turkey at this point is subjected to content analysis. Keywords: Social Media, Participatory Democracy, Political Participation, Political Communication