Turkish Youth’s (Re)Construction of their Political Identity in Social Media, before “Resistanbul”

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Author(s): Tüge T. Gülşen (Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey)
Copyright: 2014
Pages: 22
Source title: Identity and Leadership in Virtual Communities: Establishing Credibility and Influence
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Dona J. Hickey (University of Richmond, USA)and Joe Essid (University of Richmond, USA)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-5150-0.ch001

Keywords: Information Science Reference / Media & Communications / Social Computing / Virtual Communities & Virtual Reality

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Abstract

This chapter explores the political potential of social media widely used as a means of communication by Turkish young people and examines how they perceive social media as alternative social environments, where they can manifest their political identities. In addition, the study conducted aims at understanding whether the political situation in Turkey before the “Resistanbul” events, beginning toward the end of May 2013, created fear among young people that could cause them to hesitate to express their political thoughts or feel the need to veil their political identities. The results of the survey reveals that Turkish young people, despite having a high sense of freedom, tend to be politically disengaged in social media, and they seem to be hesitant to reveal their political identities in this alternative democratic social space, but they do not mind “others” manifesting their political identities.

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Turkish Youth’s (Re)Construction of their Political Identity in Social Media, before “Resistanbul”

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