Siyasetçi Yurttaş Etkileşimi Bağlamında Eski Cumhurbaşkanı Abdullah Gül'ün Twitter Takipçilerine İlişkin Bir Değerlendirme: 5651 Sayılı İnternet Yasası ve Twitter Yasağı Örnekleri

An Assessment on the Twitter Followers of Abdullah Gül, the Former Turkish President, as part of Politician-Citizen Interaction: The Internet Bill No. 5651 and the Ban on Twitter

Özet

Bu çalışmanın amacı, Twitter'da en çok takip edilen ikinci kişi ve Türkiye'de sosyal medyayı kullanan ilk Cumhurbaşkanı olan Abdullah Gül'ün Twitter üzerinden takipçileriyle kurduğu ilişkinin, siyasetçi-yurttaş etkileşimi açısından bir değerlendirmesini yapmaktır. Yurttaşların siyasal bir mesele üzerinden, politik bir figür ile etkileşim kurabilmesi, yeni medyanın yurttaşlara sunduğu katılım olanaklarıyla yakından ilgilidir. Bu nedenle, politik bir figür olarak dönemin Cumhurbaşkanı Abdullah Gül'ün tweetlerine gelen takipçi yorumlarının incelenmesi, Türkiye'de siyasetçi-yurttaş etkileşiminin İnternet ile kazandığı yeni boyutu sergilemek açısından önemlidir

Abstract

This study aims to present an assessment of citizen-politician interaction in Turkey through analysing the interaction between Abdullah Gül, the first Turkish President using Twitter and the second most followed Twitter user in Turkey, and his followers through Twitter. The concept of citizens being able to interact with a political figure on a political issue is closely related to the means of political participation provided by the New Media. It is therefore of great importance to analyse reader comments on the tweets of former president Abdullah Gül as a political figure of the time in order to display the new character of citizen-politician interaction in Turkey facilitated by the Internet.The representative sample of this study is selected from the follower replies on the tweets of Abdullah Gül in which he announced his approval of the amendments to the Internet Bill No. 5651 and criticised the ban on Twitter. Selected reader replies have been subjected to an evaluation that focuses on the themes of criticism. The selection of Abdullah Gül's tweets on the Internet Bill No. 5651 and the ban on Twitter, and the analysis of critical reader replies to these tweets seem to have been important as they provide concrete examples of social media users recent reactions to and perceptions of internet governance and legal regulations on the Internet in Turkey. The specific focus on critical follower responses serves two purposes: it helps to categorise participants' reactions on a political issue expressed via the social media, and it helps to speculate on what these reactions tell us about political, social and cultural issues