ATIK KÂĞIT İŞÇİLERİNİN SOSYAL MEDYADA ÖZ TEMSİLLERİ: COVID-19 SALGINI SIRASINDA @atikkagit’ın PAYLAŞTIĞI TWITTER İÇERİKLERİNİN GÖSTERGEBİLİMSEL ANALİZİ

Waste pickers have been excluded from society because of their appearance due to working conditions and poverty, as well as being deprived of fundamental human rights such as the right to health and the right to education. Moreover, the advocacy of the waste pickers is presented as a spectacle in the mainstream media content (whether online or in the mass media) that protects the interests of the dominant ideology. Therefore, waste pickers, who are neither visible on the street nor in other public spaces, try to construct a self-representation through social media. The institutional form of this self-representation is the Recycling Workers Association, which was established in 2013, and the social media accounts of this association. Waste pickers looking for recyclable materials in dumpsters or working in waste yards faced a vital threat by not being able to earn their daily income due to both the risk of disease caused by COVID-19 and the curfews/restrictions in 2020. This study aims to discuss the self-representation of waste pickers, who strove at moulding public opinion during the curfews, on social media. This study is important in terms of understanding the efforts of others to gain visibility in society by using social media. The study is limited to the content shared on the @atikkagit Twitter account during the curfew, and the semiotic analysis method is used in the study. According to the research findings, the self-representation of waste pickers in an emergency due to the COVID-19 epidemic is seen within the framework of poverty and social aid rather than a struggle for rights.