Elections have the basic function in democracies. The powerful and main actor of the elections is the elector. Political party, candidate and the other partners keep the elector in the center. Political parties and candidates want to reach and receive elector’s vote by influencing him/her. Parties carry out campaign fort his purpose. The goals of political parties and candidates in their selection campaign is to convey their political messages to the elector by using the most appropriate means of communication, through attracting elector’s attention and to come to power by persuading and receiving the vote of the elector. Fort this goal, primarily, the messages given in the election campaign should attract elector’s attention and correspond to elector’s political thought and problems. In this study, we attempt to explain to what degree the campaign applications that attempt to communicate with the elector through using various media, methods and techniques by political parties and candidates, attract the attention of the elector. In this context, we conducted a survey over 429 persons in 2015 legislative general elections, and we analyzed the level of elector’s attention to the messages given, media, methods and techniques used. As the result of the study it is found that the political messages given through television, internet, social media and press, attract elector’s attention more than the other methods. On the contrary, in the campaign activities such as promotions, suitable visits, autocade, meetings, poll and election music cannot be said to be successful in attracting elector’s attention
Özet:Demokrasilerde seçimler en temel fonksiyondur. Seçimlerin güçlü ve temel aktörü seçmendir. Seçim süreçlerinde siyasal parti, aday ve diğer paydaşları seçmeni merkezde tutar. Siyasal partiler ve adaylar seçmene ulaşmak ve onu etkileyerek oyunu alabilmek isterler. Partiler bunun için kampanya yürütürler. Siyasal partiler ve adayların seçim kampanyalarındaki amaçları; en uygun siyasal iletişim aracı kullanarak siyasal mesajlarını etkin ve anlaşılır bir biçimde seçmene ulaştırıp, seçmenin ilgisini çekmek ve seçmeni ikna ederek oyunu alarak iktidar olmaktır. Bunun için her şeyden önce seçim kampanyalarında verilen mesajların seçmenin ilgisini çekmesi ve seçmenin politik düşünce ve sorunları ile örtüşmesi gerekir. Bu çalışmada; siyasal seçim kampanyalarında siyasal partiler ve adaylar tarafından değişik araç, yöntem ve teknikler kullanılarak seçmenle iletişim kurulmaya çalışılan kampanya uygulamalarının seçmenin ne düzeyde ilgisini çekebildiğini ortaya koymaya çalışılmıştır. Bu bağlamda, 2015 milletvekili genel seçimlerinde Ankara’da 429 kişi ile anket yapılarak bu seçim kampanyalarında verilen mesajlar ile kullanılan araç, yöntem ve tekniklere karşı seçmenin ilgi düzeyi araştırılmıştır. Yapılan çalışmada; televizyon, internet-sosyal medya ve yazılı medya gibi iletişim araçları üzerinden verilen siyasal mesajların diğer yöntemlere göre seçmenin daha çok ilgisini çektiği tespit edilmiştir. Buna karşılık; promosyonlar, yerinde ziyaretler, araç konvoyları, mitingler, seçim büroları ve seçim müzikleri gibi kampanya faaliyetlerinin seçmenin ilgisini çekmede başarılı olduğu söylenememektedir.Kavramlar: siyasal seçim kampanyaları, siyasal mesaj, seçmen ilgisi, ELECTOR’S LEVEL OF INTEREST IN THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN OF THE POLTITICAL PARTIES: THE CASE OF 2015 GENERAL ELECTIONSAbstract:Elections have the basic function in democracies. The powerful and main actor of the elections is the elector. Political party, candidate and the other partners keep the elector in the center. Political parties and candidates want to reach and receive elector’s vote by influencing him/her. Parties carry out campaign fort his purpose. The goals of political parties and candidates in their selection campaign is to convey their political messages to the elector by using the most appropriate means of communication, through attracting elector’s attention and to come to power by persuading and receiving the vote of the elector. Fort this goal, primarily, the messages given in the election campaign should attract elector’s attention and correspond to elector’s political thought and problems. In this study, we attempt to explain to what degree the campaign applications that attempt to communicate with the elector through using various media, methods and techniques by political parties and candidates, attract the attention of the elector. In this context, we conducted a survey over 429 persons in 2015 legislative general elections, and we analyzed the level of elector’s attention to the messages given, media, methods and techniques used. As the result of the study it is found that the political messages given through television, internet, social media and press, attract elector’s attention more than the other methods. On the contrary, in the campaign activities such as promotions, suitable visits, autocade, meetings, poll and election music can not be said to be successful in attracting elector’s attentionKeywords: political election campaign, political message, elector’s interest.