2009 YEREL SEÇİMLERİNİN TÜRK BLOG VE FORUM ORTAMLARINA YANSIMALARI

REFLECTIONS ON THE 2009 LOCAL ELECTIONS IN THE TURKISH BLOGOSPHERE AND FORUMS

As instruments introduced by the virtual space, political activities carried out upon blogs and forums are characterized as online political communication. Political arguments and delibarations within the blogosphere and forum environments are in an essential interaction with the real life. Issues relative to political agenda are invariably conveyed to the online political environment. Regarding how online citizens carried the Local Elections of March 2009 to virtual space, one is evaluating through the examination of top-rated 243 blogs and 30 forums submitted between November-March 2009 approaching the subject with the so called “push effect”. In the same process one is comparing the functions of the instruments. The theoritical base of this evaluation relies on “mobilization” and “strengthening” hypothesis and the results of the analyse show that the research subject fulfils the conditions of the strengthening hypothesis