An analysis of the candidates remarks on Twitter in 2014 presidency election in terms of values

Abstract

Political communication process has taken a different position with the aid of technology. Political actors, besides revealing daily feelings, emotions, and activities in their campaigns, have updated their content and the size of their election campaigns according to the new conditions. Political actors especially leaders have received support from professionals in the field and image designers to present themselves as “brand personality” thereby making use of social media communication methods as well as traditional methods. The main reason for this is their being the most primary figure in Turkish politics. In Turkish political environment, besides deputy elections, candidates have used socia media heavily in August 14,2014 presidency elections which is done initially by plebiscite. Presidency candidates Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, and Selahattin Demirtaş in twitter have tried to design a personal image in the election messages through making use of certain values. They have delivered such messages that they will be a trustworthy, honest, democrat, peacemaker president.