THE CHANGING RHETORIC OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN POLITICAL COMMUNICATION
SİYASAL İLETİŞİMDE DEĞİŞEN FOTOĞRAF RETORİĞİ

Author : Mustafa Bilge SATKIN
Number of pages : 137-152

Abstract

In the 21st century, political communication has evolved into a process with a heightened momentum that eases reaching larger masses and forming a public through media. This study demonstrates the use of photography in election campaigns as a tool for persuasion and various changes it undergoes with the newly emerging media channels. The study takes the first 10 candidates in the official MP candidacy lists of AKP (JUSTICE AND DEVELOPMENT PARTY), CHP (THE REPUBLICAN PEOPLE’S PARTY), HDP (THE PEOPLE’S DEMOCRACY PARTY) AND MHP (THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT PARTY) in the 3 election zones in Istanbul in the 2015 elections; and analyzes the ratio of their use of such social media networks as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and the photographs they shared in those contexts between 28 April and 28 May, 2015. The candidates’ photo sharings have been evaluated in graphics in terms of number and content. The study has compared the ways photographs were used by past political actors since the invention of photography with the uses of photography in social media for the purposes of political communication. The obtained results have been converted into graphs in order to determine the importance contemporary political actors give to photography for persuading social masses and to understand the changes photographs have undergone in terms of form and content. Looking at the stage the use of photography has developed into in the year 2015, it’s possible to observe that politicians --- like their predecessors--- aim to avail themselves of the photograph’s power of influence and attraction to reach the target population and communicate with larger masses. As different from classical tools of communication, the fact that politicians largely uses photographs in social media, that most of these photographs seen in social media platforms are taken with rather amateur recording devices without getting any professional assistance, and that politicians even take and upload selfies shows the entry of new communication tools and methods in our life.

Keywords

Political Communication, Social Media, Photography

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