Usage of Social Media by Political Actors: An Analysis on the Usage of Twitter by Leaders of Political Parties in Turkey

The effectiveness of social media applications is becoming increasingly important in the public sphere. Politicians, who are the actors of representation and decision-making in the public sphere, recognized these applications and they have begun to use social media applications for the political participation of public and find out the demands of them. Nowadays, many politicians actively use social networks both in Turkey and around the world, thus, they are able to reach more people and radiate their political views to a wider audience. This study aims to explore how the leaders of political parties that represented in the parliament in Turkey, use the social media. In order to determine the social media usage profile of party leaders in Turkey, the frequency and objectives of usage social media by politicians will be examined. The analysis will be conducted on the politicians’ message, language, discourse, visual material etc. which share on Twitter. Further more, the study will also handle whether the politicians use the twitter interactively -answer the questions of their fallowers- or not. The findings that obtained from the survey will show us how effective the party leaders use the social media to reach the public