POLITICAL COMMUNICATION IN THE NEW MEDIA AGE: CANDIDATES' USE OF TWITTER (X) IN THE 2023 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

Abstract

The new media era marks a period that profoundly affects political communication with the rapid development of digital technologies. This study aims to examine the political communication strategies of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on the Twitter (X) platform between 30 April 2023 and 14 May 2023 during the first round of Presidential elections held on 14 May 2023. The study was carried out with the content analysis technique, one of the qualitative research methods, in terms of data collection and analysis. The data was obtained by retrospectively scanning the candidates' Twitter (X) addresses. In order to examine the candidates' posts on the Twitter (X) platform in terms of message content and statistical distribution, a coding table was prepared in Microsoft Excel and the data in the coding table was transferred to the SPSS-24 data analysis program. Then, frequency tables and graphs were created to give the numbers and percentages for each variable as descriptive statistics of the data obtained from the categories. The results show that Erdoğan prefers to reach large masses and emphasize leadership, while Kılıçdaroğlu prefers to focus within the party. While Erdoğan's communication is more formal and populist, Kılıçdaroğlu adopts a critical approach. While Erdogan's posts emphasize rallies and current debates, Kılıçdaroğlu encourages solidarity within the party and criticizes rival candidates. Although Erdoğan's number of followers and interactions are high, Kılıçdaroğlu's number of interactions is higher.