THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

The main purpose of this study is to examine the political communication behaviors of the participants covering the individuals from all segments by taking into consideration the demographic and internet related usage characteristics, regardless of a special election campaign. In order to meet the main purpose of the study, based on the quantitative research method, data were collected from a total of 531 participants in Aksaray, using a questionnaire formed from appropriate scales and questions according to the convenience sampling technique. Data were analyzed by various statistical techniques such as descriptive statistics, Pearson Correlation Analysis, Factor Analysis, One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multi-way variance analysis (factorial ANOVA). The results revealed that the political communication behavior in social media consists of two sub-dimensions which include active and passive engagement behaviors. In addition, it has been determined that these political communication behaviors in social media do not differ according to demographic characteristics, but they differ according to some personal internet and social media usage characteristics. These results, in addition to their contribution to the conceptual literature, it is thought that political parties include clues about how they can effectively use social media as a tool in their communication efforts and marketing efforts.