Turkish elections on the means of communication
A few days before the date of the presidential and parliamentary elections that Turkey will witness, both main candidates in the elections, the current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the Republican People’s Party, who also leads the opposition “Table of Six” coalition, are racing by all means.
From the war of crowds to the war of statements, to the use of social networking sites for electoral purposes.
Where there are conflicting opinions on how the main candidates in the elections use social networking sites, but there is a consensus that Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu give great importance to these platforms and use them as a quick propaganda tool to benefit from them in obtaining more votes during the crucial elections that Turkey is witnessing months before the centenary of its founding. .
In this context, Erkan Saka, a professor of journalism and media studies at the Turkish Bilgi University for Informatics, confirmed that “both candidates use social media, but the difference lies in the mechanism of each of them using these platforms.
He added, “Until recently, I claimed that Erdogan was the most active on those sites, but the electoral process proved the opposite, as Enkilicdaroglu is the most active.”
There is also a difference between the two men’s use of communication sites, for example the current president uses them as platforms for live broadcasts, and rarely uses other services on these sites, while Kilicdaroglu takes a more direct approach to the camera, and relies on publishing his own videos instead of Live broadcast, as he did in the last clips in which he appeared, and it turned out that he is more aware of the impact of these platforms on voters and viewers, which is a reason for his increasing, comprehensive and spontaneous use of these sites.
He also pointed out that “both candidates had unequal attempts to obtain the votes of young people, as they are the most targeted group on social media, especially if we take into account the presence of 6 million young people who will vote in the elections this month, for the first time,” stressing that “it is difficult to know The direct impact on them, but social media has a fundamental impact,” as he put it.
He also saw that “the impact of social platforms may be greater on undecided people who have not yet chosen their candidate or those who are not in Turkey and spend most of their time outside the country, as well as on younger voters who do not have party experience.”
For his part, academic Suleiman Irfan, a professor of journalism at the Turkish University of Uskudar, stressed that “Kilichtdar Oglu is the most effective user of YouTube only compared to his rival Erdogan.” He added to Al-Arabiya.net, “The head of the Republican People’s Party produces self-made videos professionally, and although Erdogan has a professional team in this field, he, for example, publishes long tweets, which is not desirable, as people prefer to read short and direct tweets.”
He continued, “Both candidates use the same social sites such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook, but I believe that the current president’s team uses these platforms more than Kilicdaroglu, and the aim is to unite their supporters and motivate them to support.”
Where Turkey is witnessing presidential and parliamentary elections on the fourteenth of May, which are the most important elections in the history of the “Republic”, and come more than 3 months after a devastating earthquake hit the south of the country and spread to Syria, leaving thousands dead in both neighboring countries and massive destruction in Infrastructure.
Four candidates are running in the presidential race, Erdogan, Kilicdaroglu, Muharram Ince, and Sinan Erdogan.
