Digital Battlegrounds: The Interplay of Social Media, State Power, and Influencers in Türkiye’s Earthquake Response

IF 5.5 1区文学 Q1 COMMUNICATION

Social Media + Society Pub Date : 2024-09-14 DOI:10.1177/20563051241269305

Duygu Karataş, Mine Gencel Bek

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This study examines the critical role of Twitter (X) in crisis communication during the earthquake that struck Türkiye on 6 February 2023, focusing on how two prominent influencers, Haluk Levent and Oğuzhan Uğur, effectively utilized the platform in response to the disaster. Analysis of highly retweeted posts and engagement rates for tweets collected using related keywords—“ahbap,” “babalatv,” “haluklevent,” and “oguzhanugur”—reveals how Twitter served not only for functions such as sharing locations for rescue operations, information dissemination, organization, and fundraising but also for defense against attacks and criticism of the government. Furthermore, Twitter emerged as a digital battleground where power struggles unfolded between the state and activist influencers. This study addresses this oversight by examining how Twitter functions not merely as a tool for communication and aid coordination but also as an arena of political contestation, filling a critical gap in understanding the role of social media. It underscores the critical need to consider the underlying political dynamics that social media interactions bring to the forefront during emergencies.

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数字战场：图尔基耶地震应对中社交媒体、国家权力和影响者的相互作用

本研究探讨了推特（X）在 2023 年 2 月 6 日土耳其地震期间的危机公关中发挥的关键作用，重点研究了两位有影响力的名人哈鲁克-莱文特（Haluk Levent）和奥古赞-乌古尔（Oğuzhan Uğur）如何有效利用推特平台应对灾难。通过分析使用相关关键词--"ahbap"、"babalatv"、"haluklevent "和 "oguzhanugur"--收集到的高转发率帖子和参与率推文，揭示了推特不仅在分享救援地点、信息传播、组织和筹款等方面发挥了作用，还在抵御攻击和批评政府方面发挥了作用。此外，推特还成为了国家和有影响力的活动家之间展开权力斗争的数字战场。本研究针对这一疏忽，探讨了 Twitter 不仅作为沟通和援助协调工具，还作为政治角逐舞台的功能，填补了了解社交媒体作用的重要空白。它强调了在紧急情况下考虑社交媒体互动所带来的潜在政治动态的迫切需要。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Social Media + Society COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

9.20

自引率

3.80%

发文量

111

审稿时长

12 weeks

期刊介绍： Social Media + Society is an open access, peer-reviewed scholarly journal that focuses on the socio-cultural, political, psychological, historical, economic, legal and policy dimensions of social media in societies past, contemporary and future. We publish interdisciplinary work that draws from the social sciences, humanities and computational social sciences, reaches out to the arts and natural sciences, and we endorse mixed methods and methodologies. The journal is open to a diversity of theoretic paradigms and methodologies. The editorial vision of Social Media + Society draws inspiration from research on social media to outline a field of study poised to reflexively grow as social technologies evolve. We foster the open access of sharing of research on the social properties of media, as they manifest themselves through the uses people make of networked platforms past and present, digital and non. The journal presents a collaborative, open, and shared space, dedicated exclusively to the study of social media and their implications for societies. It facilitates state-of-the-art research on cutting-edge trends and allows scholars to focus and track trends specific to this field of study.