Abstract
Censorship, banning, and imprisonment are different methods used to suppress dissenting voices in traditional media and have now evolved into a new form with bot and troll accounts in the digital media age in Turkey. Is it possible to construct a bloc with counter-trolls against the escalating political pressure on the media in the post-truth era? Are counter-trolls capable of setting the agenda? This article discusses the possibility of constructing a bloc against the escalating political pressure in Turkey on the media through counter-trolls in the context of communicative rationality. First, it observes the ruling party’s troll politics strategy on Twitter, then examines the counter-discourses against political pressure today; thereafter it analyzes the discourse in hashtags on the agenda of the Boğaziçi University protests. Firstly, 18,000 tweets are examined to understand the suppress-communication strategy of the AK Party trolls. Secondly, the agenda-setting capacity of counter-trolls is observed between January 1, 2020, and February 5, 2021, and 18,000 tweets regarding Boğaziçi protests are examined to analyze the communication strategy of the counter-trolls. The study shows that the populist government instrumentalizes communication in social media, and Twitter does not have enough potential for the Gramscian counter-hegemony, but the organized actions and discourses have the potential to create public opinion.
Highlights
Today, 4,5 billion people use the internet on earth, where approximately 7,8 billion people live, and 3,8 billion of these users have social media accounts (Kemp, 2020)
The accounts and tweets reviewed in the analysis indicate that the discourses that develop against the Boğaziçi protests are categorized within three differ‐ ent themes
Based on the research findings, it is seen that AK Party instrumentalizes trolling
Summary
4,5 billion people use the internet on earth, where approximately 7,8 billion people live, and 3,8 billion of these users have social media accounts (Kemp, 2020). As a matter of fact, we have been experiencing a similar change in communication prac‐ tices of the typographical age that McLuhan mentioned in Gutenberg Galaxy (1963) This makes us ques‐ tion the relation between one’s connection to the rea‐ son. During the 2013 Gezi Park protests, the economic and ideological hegemony of the media controlled by political authority was sur‐ passed, and social media was used as an alternative means of communication. The way such political discussions are held in channels such as Twitter is significant in terms of projecting the image of supporting freedom of expression This new communica‐ tive strategy creates the illusion that propagandist state‐ ments, lies, and polarizing discourses circulate through the people, not directly from the political power, causing the truth to be ambiguous. The study will first examine the counter discoursive attacks of groups try‐ ing to make their voice heard against political authority today after observing AK Party’s troll politics strategy via Twitter (Bulut & Yörük, 2017; Karatas & Saka, 2017)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
