Three days before the date of the presidential and parliamentary elections that Turkey will hold next Sunday, the two main candidates in the elections, incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his rival Kamal Kilicdaroglu, head of the “Republican People’s Party”, which is also led by the opposition coalition “Table of Six ”, rushes by all means.
From a mob war to a war of statements, to the use of social networking sites for campaign purposes.
Voices of youth .. Where is it pouring?
Who is stronger?
Who uses these platforms the most and how will they affect voters?
In fact, there have been conflicting opinions about how the main election candidates used social media sites, but there is a consensus that both Erdogan and Kılıçdaroglu attach great importance to these platforms and use them as a quick propaganda tool to capitalize on them in getting more votes during the decisive elections that Turkey is going through a few months ago, starting from the centenary of its founding.
In this context, Erkan Saka, professor of journalism and media studies at the Turkish Bilgi University of Informatics, confirmed that “both candidates use social media, but the difference lies in the mechanism of using these platforms by each of them.
He added: “Until recently, I claimed that Erdogan was the most active on these sites, but the electoral process has shown the opposite, as Kılıçdaroğlu is the most active.”
A university professor told Al Arabiya.net: “There is a difference between two men using websites to communicate. For example, the current president uses them as live streaming platforms and rarely uses other services on these sites, while Kilicdaroglu takes a more direct approach to the camera, and relies on posting his own videos instead of live broadcasts, as he did in recent clips. in which he has appeared and was found to be more aware of the impact these platforms have on voters and viewers, which is the reason for his increasing, comprehensive and spontaneous use of these sites.
Voices of Youth
He pointed out that “Both candidates have had an unequal effort to win youth votes as they are the most targeted group on social media, especially when you consider that there are 6 million young people who will be voting in this month’s elections. , for the first time,” emphasizing that “it’s hard to know about the direct impact on them, but social media has a fundamental impact,” as he puts it.
The Importance of Istanbul in Elections
greater influence on the undecided
In addition, he believed that “the impact of social platforms may be greater on undecided people who have not yet chosen their candidate or those who are not in Turkey and spend most of their time outside the country, as well as on younger voters who do not have party experience.
For his part, academician Suleiman Irfan, a professor of journalism at Turkey’s Uskudar University, stressed that “Kilichtdar Oglu is the most efficient YouTube user only compared to his rival Erdogan.” He added to Al-Arabiya.net: “The head of the Republican People’s Party professionally releases self-made videos, and although Erdogan has a professional team in this area, he, for example, posts long tweets, which is undesirable since people prefer to read short and direct tweets. “.
He continued: “Both candidates use the same social sites such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook, but I believe that the current president’s team uses these platforms more than Kilicdaroglu and the goal is to unite their supporters and motivate them to support.”
Next Sunday, May 14, Turkey will hold presidential and parliamentary elections, which are the most important elections in the history of the “Republic” and will be held more than 3 months after the devastating earthquake in the south of the country that spread to Syria, thousands of deaths in both countries and a huge infrastructure damage.
Four candidates are running for the presidency: Erdogan, Kilicdaroglu, Muharram Ince and Sinan Ogan.
