THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL

NETWORKS AS A PUBLIC

RELATIONS TOOL IN POLITICAL

COMMUNICATION

• INTRODUCTION

• CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

• METHODOLOGY

• FINDINGS

It has always been about moving peoplefrom A to B

and/or keeping them there!

A

B

C

• Creating effective

messages and

conveying them

with the right

channels to break to break

the clutterthe clutter

is a challenge also

for those in

political

communication..

. http://www.slideshare.net/benteka/political-communication-through-social-media

• Breakenridge says

“web is only a technological platform, that put together communication;

it will always be the PR’s job to create messages and interaction with the different publics, suiting it to whatever it takes to grant their attention”

(2008:261)

Internet provides several opportunities. Above many:

organizations and individuals can communicate directly with stakeholders without the mediation of gatekeepers.

there is availability of a bigger volume of information – People can find and deliver information about

a person, organization, enterprise, product/service quickly and selectively.

Internet creates countless opportunities for political communication

Online media can help politicians access the potential

supporters and voters function as a multimedia source enable targeting specific groups enable direct connection which also

makes a “supporter” database possible be “interactive” thus it gives the

opportunity to develop a “client” or “voter” based service to provide

HELP CITIZENS TO EASILY PARTICIPATE IN POLITICS

• There are differences between the political parties in using the

internet as a tool to communicate with their

potential supporters and voters They use internet in two

different ways:

Official websites Other platforms

• The websites owned by the parties which can also involve social media features

• Web pages that are not owned by the parties;

• Parties are the users of social networks and user generated content sites

METHODOLOGY

The purpose of the research is

• To understand the effects of social media as a public relations tool in political communication in Turkey,

Q1 : How do political parties contact with citizens online during political campaigns?

Q 2 : How do citizens get information while making political decisions?

Q 3: Does social networking shape political decisions of the citizens?

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Constitutional referendum, September 12, 2010

case has been examined.

mixed method approach has been adopted

To find the answers to the research questions

Short background of the referendum

After the military coup of 12 September 1980, the military junta drafted a new constitution which was also accepted through a referendum.

In 2010, Turkish parliament adopted a series of constitutional amendments which did not achieve the required majority (67%) for implemantation.

However, the majority (330 votes- 60%), accepted to present the amendments to the electorate in a referendum.

27 articles were voted in the referandum.

Government presented all the articles in a single package.

The voters would say YES or NO to all the amendments.

This was the main problem stated by the opposition parties.

The themes were as follows:

• Coup leaders and military personnel

• Economic and social rights

• Individual freedoms

• Judicial reforms

Research Step 1 and 2 were designed to answer the first

research question:

Q1 : How do political parties contact with citizens online during political

campaigns?

STEP 1: • Examination of the search engine

data to understand the Internet based political communication

Examination of the “web traffic”

• This kind of research enables researchers to capture political communications by parties, politicians, individual officials and activists

• In this step online characteristics of the 2010 Constitutional Referendum was examined through the link data obtained using the search engine “Google”.

http://www.slideshare.net/hanpark/how-to-social-scientists-use-link-data-11-june2010

STEP 2: • Interview with the

representatives of the two main Turkish parties

(the ruling party AKP - the main opposition party CHP)

that use Internet as a PR tool in their political communication.

Interviews were conducted as a qualitative research technique, and they enabled us to gain an understanding of how political parties viewed and used Internet in their PR activities.

Research Step 3 was designed to answer the second and third

research questions:

Q 2 : How do citizens get information while making political decisions?

Q 3: Does social media shape political decisions of the citizens?

STEP 3: •Examination of the effects of

social networks on citizen decision making through a

Web-based survey.

research on Internet-based phenomena are often conducted via instrumentation facilitated or made possible by the Internet.

Web consumption among different age groups and genders is not

similar. This fact led us to following hypotheses:

H1: Sex effects the extent that a citizen is influenced by social networks in political decision making.

H2: Age effects the extent that a citizen is influenced by social networks in political decision making.

And we stated our starting point as the following hypothesis:

• H3: Social media influence citizens’ political decision making.

Limitations:

• Link data collected from search engine have reliability issues; – different search engines can give different results

• Interviews are limited with the two representatives of the two main parties.

• Survey is limited with participants who received the online invitation to reply, and voluntarily participated.– Research show that university graduates and

people with higher education constitute the 83% of the Internet users in Turkey.

Findings from step 1:

• PRELIMINARY RESULTS FROM STEP ONE:

Links on referandum "12 Eylül referandumu”:

143.000

“12 Eylül referendum”+online haberler: 540,000

Facebook results “12 Eylül referandum”: 4.420

Facebook account: 123

Twitter results "12 eylül referandum"+ evet: 12

YouTube Videos "12 eylül referandum": 398

About the content of the links:

• The ruling party AKP and the opposition party CHP used web mainly as a propaganda tool.

• Randomly selected links were presenting the standing points of the parties, instead of the changes coming with the amendments.

• Informative links were almost 1/1000 of

those involving propaganda.

– AKP interview showed that

•AKP intentionally used web to stress the bad reputation of 1980 military junta constitution to promote 2010 amendments.

– CHP interview showed that CHP did not have a solid web strategy but used web to criticize Judicial reforms. CHP said the ruling party used the amendments to set the base for intervening judicial system.

Findings from step 2: interviews

ONLINE ACTIVITIES OF AKP• OFFICIAL WEB SITE

– Information √– Membership √– Downloads √– Interactive Comm. (AKIM) √– Links to related media √– UGC √– Archive √

Findings from step 2: interviews

ONLINE ACTIVITIES OF AKP

• OTHER PLATFORMS– SOCIAL NETWORKS

– Information √– Membership √– Downloads √– Games √– Links to related media √– UGC √

Findings from step 2:

ONLINE ACTIVITIES OF CHP

• OFFICIAL WEB SITE– Information √– Membership √– Downloads √– Archive √– Links to related media √

Findings from step 2:

ONLINE ACTIVITIES OF CHP• OTHER PLATFORMS

– SOCIAL NETWORKS

– Information √– Membership √– Downloads √– Games √– Links to related media √– UGC √– Special videos, visual&textual content √– Interactive Comm. √

Findings from step 2:

Findings from step 3:

FREQUENCY

Relationship between gender and the extent of being influenced by social media in political decisions

While making political decisions, to what extent do

social media impact your decisions?

Mann-Whitney U 14.972,500Wilcoxon W 26.297,500Z -2,122Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) 0,034

Relationship between age and the extent of being influenced by social media in political decisions

While making political decisions, to what extent do social media impact

your ?

Chi-Square 4,556

df 3

Asymp. Sig. 0,207

What About Referendum?

While making political decisions about September 12 Referendum, to what extent do social media impact your

decisions?

Mann-Whitney U 16.001,000

Wilcoxon W 27.326,000

Z -1,100

Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) 0,271

Relationship between gender and the extent of being influenced by social media during September 12 Referendum campaigns

Age N Mean Rank

While making political decisions about September 12 Referendum, to what extent do

social media impact your decisions?

18-24 40 204,5025-34 224 199,7235-44 72 161,06>=45 42 169,48Total 378 

Test Statistics(a,b)

How much were you affected from social media while making your

decision related with the 12 September referendum?

Chi-Square 9,749df 3Asymp. Sig. 0,021

Relationship between gender and the extent of being influenced by social media during September 12

Referendum campaigns

There is a strong correlation between the duration of daily use of social media and the extent of being affected from social media

Correlations

To what extent do social media impact your

decisions on your daily life ?

Spearman's rho

Duration of daily social media using (hour)

Correlation Coefficient

,317(**)

Sig. (2-tailed) 0,000

N 378

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The relationship between the followed media outlet and the political campaigns encountered in social media • Participants who have followed the offical

web sites (P: 0,035) and youtube (P: 0,017) have mostly encountered with AKP

• Participants who have followed the Facebook (P: 0,000) and youtube (P:0,002)have mostly encountered with CHP

• There is no significant reletionship between the other political parties and followed social media outlet

The relationship between the content the participants were exposed to and when they encountered political parties in social media

• Participants who encountered with AKP exposed to party focused content (P: 0,00)

• Participants who encounter with CHP exposed to propaganda (P: 0.024)

Results

Q1: How do political parties contact with citizens online during political campaigns?

– Ofiical websites– Social media including blogs, micro

blogs, social networks, video blogs,

There are signs that political parties use Social Media in a beginner level.

An important result is the understanding that online PR does not/must not replace traditional offline PR in Turkey.

Q2:How do citizens get information while making political decisions

• Citizens get information from

•Citizens get online information from

Q3: Does social networking shape political decisions of the citizens

H1: Gender affects the extent that a citizen is influenced by social media in political decision making. H1 was confirmed,

women are more affected than men by social media in political desicion making

• On the other hand an interesting result came out about 12 September referendum:– Gender had no affect on political

decision.

• H2: Age effects the extent that a citizen is influenced by social media in political decision making.

The findings rejected H2

– Age is not a significant variable for political decision making in social networks

• On the other hand an interesting result came out about 12 September referendum – Age was a factor in being influenced by social

media during referendum campaigns.

H3: Social media influence citizens’ political decision making.

• Social media does not affect citizens’ political decision making as much as it affects their decisions about their daily life.