Political Communication in Disaster: Analysis of Two Main Political Alliances’ Tweets After 2023 Great Earthquakes in Türkiye

Year 2024, Volume: 33 Issue: 1, 111 - 132, 19.04.2024

Hayriye Nur Görkemli Hatice Mine Yayla Betül Çetinkaya

https://doi.org/10.26650/siyasal.2024.33.1387832

Abstract

The presidential elections of 2023 in Türkiye witnessed the competition of two major alliance groups, comprising different parties, namely the People’s Alliance and National Alliance. This study aims to investigate and analyze these two main groups’ party and leader tweets after the two successive major earthquakes which occurred on February 6, 2023 and hit 11 cities in Türkiye and northern Syria, causing more than 50,000 deaths. Within the study, organizations’ and leaders’ tweets of both alliances during the first week after the earthquakes were manually gathered and categorized. They are grouped and analyzed under three main categories: information type, interaction numbers, and daily course of tweets. Despite the higher number of followers of leaders, it is observed that parties in both alliances preferred to post from party accounts rather than leader accounts. Parties of the People’s Alliance shared predominantly “informational” messages, whereas the parties under the National Alliance used social media extensively during the disaster mostly for “information” and “criticism” purposes. The study also found that the average interaction per tweet of the presidential candidates in both alliances was higher than all other accounts. Moreover, the daily flow of messages was roughly parallel across the two alliances.

Keywords

Crisis Communication, Disaster Communication, Digital Political Communication, Content Analysis, Political Alliances

Ethical Statement

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Supporting Institution

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Thanks

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Afet Dönemlerinde Siyasal İletişim: Türkiye’de 2023 Büyük Depremleri Sonrası İki Ana Siyasi İttifakın Tweetlerinin Analizi

Abstract

Türkiye’de 2023 Cumhurbaşkanlığı seçimleri, farklı partilerden oluşan iki büyük ittifak grubunun (Cumhur İttifakı ve Millet İttifakı) rekabetine sahne olmuştur. Bu araştırma, 6 Şubat 2023 tarihinde meydana gelen ve Suriye’nin kuzey kesimleriyle birlikte Türkiye’nin 11 şehrini etkileyerek 50.000’den fazla kişinin ölümüne neden olan iki büyük depremin ardından bu iki ana ittifak grubunun parti ve lider tweetlerini inceleyip analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Depremlerin ilk sekiz günü boyunca her iki ittifakın parti ve liderlerinin tweetleri manuel olarak toplanarak gruplandırılmıştır. Veriler tweetlerde aktırılan veri türü, etkileşim sayıları ve tweetlerin günlük seyri açısından analiz edilmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda liderlerin takipçi sayılarının daha yüksek olmasına rağmen, her iki ittifaktaki partilerin lider hesaplarından ziyade parti hesaplarından paylaşım yapmayı tercih ettikleri görülmektedir. Cumhur İttifakı içinde analiz edilen partiler ağırlıklı olarak “bilgilendirme” mesajları paylaşırken, Millet İttifakı içindeki partilerin afet sırasında sosyal medyayı daha çok “bilgilendirme” ve “eleştiri” amaçlı kullandıkları görülmüştür. Her iki ittifaktaki cumhurbaşkanı adaylarının tweet başına ortalama etkileşiminin diğer tüm hesaplardan daha yüksek olduğu da araştırma sonucunda tespit edilmiştir. Ayrıca, mesajların günlük akış seyrinin iki ittifak grubunda da paralel olduğu görülmüştür.

Keywords

Kriz İletişimi, Afet İletişimi, Dijital Siyasal İletişim, İçerik Analizi, Siyasal İttifaklar

Project Number

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