Social Media Data Mining as a Novel Approach to Electoral Geography

Year 2024, Volume: 22 Issue: 1, 137 - 156, 29.04.2024

Burak Oğlakcı , Alper Uzun

https://doi.org/10.33688/aucbd.1407317

Abstract

When individual discourses and attitudes on social media are used for electoral geography with their spatio-temporal information, they can provide essential clues about voter behavior and voting preferences. Although there are different election-based studies using data from social media, these studies have remained far from spatial understanding of the reasons behind the votes. This research aims to understand the differences in voter behavior and voting, along with revealing the context effects on voting by using this new data and methods in the field of electoral geography. We obtain the election-oriented tweets on X (Twitter) posted from Yenimahalle (Turkey), determine sentiment states, identify the dominant topics in the tweets, and reveal the relationship between the popularity rates of the candidates on X (Twitter) and the actual vote rates. Consequently, user-generated spatio-temporal data on X (Twitter) is essential in understanding the differences in voter behavior/participation and voting, as well as in revealing context effects on voting.

Keywords

Electoral geography, Context effects, Natural language processing, Social media, X (Twitter)

Ethical Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors

Thanks

We would like to extend our thanks to the editor and anonymous reviewers for providing thoughtful suggestions to improve the article.

Seçim Coğrafyasına Yeni Bir Yaklaşım Olarak Sosyal Medya Veri Madenciliği

Abstract

Sosyal medyada yer alan bireysel söylemler ve tutumlar, sahip oldukları mekânsal-zamansal bilgilerle birlikte seçim coğrafyası için kullanıldığında seçmen davranışları ve oy tercihleri hakkında önemli ipuçları sağlayabilmektedir. Sosyal medya verilerini kullanan seçim odaklı farklı çalışmalar olsa da bu çalışmalar oyların ardındaki nedenleri mekânsal olarak anlamaktan uzak kalmıştır. Bu araştırma, seçim coğrafyası alanı için yeni sayılabilecek veri ve yöntemleri kullanarak seçmen davranışı ve oy vermedeki farklılıkları anlamayı, oy verme üzerindeki bağlamsal etkileri ortaya çıkarmayı amaçlamaktadır. Araştırmada X (Twitter) üzerinde Yenimahalle (Türkiye) ilçesinden paylaşılan seçim odaklı tweetleri elde ediyor, duygu durumlarını belirliyor, tweetlerdeki baskın konuları tespit ediyor ve adayların X (Twitter) üzerindeki popülerlik oranları ile gerçek oy oranları arasındaki ilişkiyi ortaya koyuyoruz. Sonuç olarak, X (Twitter) üzerinde kullanıcılar tarafından oluşturulan mekân-zamansal veriler, seçmen davranışı/katılımı ve oy vermedeki farklılıkları anlamanın yanı sıra oy verme üzerindeki bağlam etkilerinin ortaya çıkarılmasında önemli bir yer tutmaktadır.

Keywords

Seçim coğrafyası, Bağlam etkisi, Doğal dil işleme, Sosyal medya, X (Twitter)

Ethical Statement

Yazarlar tarafından herhangi bir çıkar çatışması beyan edilmemiştir.

Thanks

Değerli editör ve anonim hakemlere makaleyi geliştirmeye yönelik düşünceli önerileri için teşekkürlerimizi sunarız.

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