Digital Politics in Turkey: Digital Democracy Practices of the Political Parties

Yıl 2023, Cilt: 10 Sayı: 2, 490 - 509, 25.10.2023

A. Fulya Şen , Y. Furkan Şen

https://doi.org/10.17336/igusbd.1055824

Cited By: 1

Öz

Digital politics includes both opportunities and risks for politicians and refers to a "new politics" understanding. In order to understand the tendencies of the ruling (Justice and Development Party) and main opposition (Republican People's Party) parties towards this “new politics” understanding which is based on the use of the opportunities offered by digital technology to create a more democratic society, in this study, the political parties' the interaction patterns on Twitter and the themes at the centre of their discourse have been analyzed between March 2020 and April 2021, covering the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study has concluded that digital political communication forms are not much different from traditional forms of political communication, that they operate in a one-way and non-dialogue manner, and that the dominant forms of politics do not open up space for critical public discussions. In the search made through the keywords that define a liberal democratic political system and cover the issues and problems arising from this system, it has been seen that both political parties excluded the problems based on the social crisis, politics and economy from their discourse.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Digital politics, digital democracy, political parties, digital public sphere, Twitter

Türkiye’de Dijital Siyaset: Siyasal Partilerin Dijital Demokrasi Pratikleri

Öz

Dijital siyaset, siyasetçiler için fırsatları ve riskleri birlikte içermekte ve “yeni bir siyaset” anlayışına gönderme yapmaktadır. Bu çalışmada, Türkiye'deki anaakım siyasetin iki temel aktörü olan iktidar (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi) ve ana muhalefet (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi) partisinin dijital teknolojinin sunduğu olanakların daha demokratik bir toplum yaratılması için kullanılmasına dayanan bu “yeni siyaset” anlayışına yönelik eğilimlerini anlamak amacıyla, özellikle COVID-19 pandemisinin ilk bir yılını kapsayan Mart 2020-Nisan 2021 tarihleri arasındaki Twitter’daki etkileşim örüntüleri ve söylemlerinin merkezindeki temalar analiz edilmiştir. Dijital teknolojinin tabandan yükselen bir demokrasinin gelişmesine ne tür katkılar sağladığını tartışan bu çalışma, dijital siyasal iletişim biçimlerinin geleneksel siyasal iletişim biçimlerinden çok farklı olmadığı, diyaloğa kapalı ve tek yönlü olarak işlediği ve egemen siyaset yapma biçimlerinin eleştirel kamusal tartışmalara alan açmadığı sonucuna ulaşmıştır. Liberal demokratik bir siyasal sistemi tanımlayan ve bu sistemden doğan konuları ve sorunları kapsayan anahtar sözcükler üzerinden yapılan taramada, her iki siyasal partinin de toplumsal kriz, siyaset ve ekonomi temelli sorunları söylemlerinden dışladığı görülmüştür.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Dijital siyaset, dijital demokrasi, siyasal partiler, dijital kamusal alan, Twitter

Kaynakça

• COLEMAN, S. ve D. FREELON, (2015). Introduction: conceptualizing digital politics. Stephen Coleman ve Deen Freelon (Ed.). Handbook of Digital Politics içinde (s. 1-13). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.
• COULDRY, N. (2015). The Social Foundations of Future Digital Politics. Stephen Coleman ve Deen Freelon (Ed.). Handbook of Digital Politics içinde (s. 35-50). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.
• DAHLGREN, P. (2005). The Internet, Public Spheres, and Political Communication: Dispersion and Deliberation, Political Communication, 22:2, 147-162, DOI: 10.1080/10584600590933160
• DAHLGREN, P. (2015). The Internet as a Civic Space. Stephen Coleman ve Deen Freelon (Ed.). Handbook of Digital Politics içinde (s. 17-34). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.
• FUCHS, C. (2021). “The Digital Commons and the Digital Public Sphere: How to Advance Digital Democracy Today”, Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 16(1). s. 9-26. doi: https://doi.org/10.16997/wpcc.917
• GASTIL, J. (2008). Political Communication and Deliberation. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
• GERBAUDO, P. (2018). Digital parties on the rise: a mass politics for the era of platforms, Erişim adresi: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/digitaliberties/digital-parties-on-rise-mass-politics-for-era-of-platforms/
• GERBAUDO, P. (2019). The Digital Party: Political Organisation and Online Democracy. London: Pluto Press.
• HALL, J. (2022). Politics and the Media: Intersections and New Directions. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
• HINDMAN, M. (2009). The Myth of Digital Democracy, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• KAUFMANN, M. ve J. JEANDESBOZ (2017). Politics and ‘the digital’: From singularity to specificity, European Journal of Social Theory, Vol. 20(3) 309–328, https://doi.org/10.1177/1368431016677976
• KOC-MICHALSKA, K. ve D. LILLEKER (2017). Digital Politics: Mobilization, Engagement, and Participation, Political Communication, 34:1, 1-5, DOI: 10.1080/10584609.2016.1243178
• LILLEKER, D. G. ve Karolina KOC-MICHALSKA (2017). What Drives Political Participation? Motivations and Mobilization in a Digital Age, Political Communication, 34:1, 21-43, DOI: 10.1080/10584609.2016.1225235
• MCNAIR, B. (2018). An Introduction to Political Communication, Oxon: Routledge.
• MILLER, C. (2016). The Rise of Digital Politics. London: Demos.
• PERSILY, N., ve TUCKER, J. (2020). Introduction. N. Persily ve J. Tucker (Ed.). Social Media and Democracy: The State of the Field, Prospects for Reform içinde (s. 1-9). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• ROGERS, R. (2019). Doing Digital Methods. London: Sage.
• SIMON, J., Theo BASS ve Victoria BOELMAN (2017). Digital Democracy: The tools transforming political engagement, Erişim adresi: https://media.nesta.org.uk/documents/digital_democracy.pdf
• VACCARI, C. (2013). Digital Politics in Western Democracies: A Comparative Study. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
• VACCARI, C. (2017). Online Mobilization in Comparative Perspective: Digital Appeals and Political Engagement in Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, Political Communication, 34:1, 69-88, DOI: 10.1080/10584609.2016.1201558