Social Media and Turkish Foreign Policy: Turkish Foregin Policy Perceptions through Kobane Tweets

Abstract

Recent technological advances enabling quick and effective dissemination of information on social media have made perceptions and attitudes of an electorate towards policy actions more sensitive. This sensitivity shapes the link between domestic and foreign policies, especially in democracies. During the past fifteen years, foreign and domestic policy nexus in Turkey has become more prominent and critical; thus scholarly focus on this has increased. This study contributes to the literature by examining the public opinion-foreign policy nexus using new methodology. It employs an algorithm, which groups tweets in Turkish with similar “sentiments.” With this, the study addresses two recently popular topics in Turkish political studies, i.e., foreign-domestic policy linkage and the role of social media in Turkish politics, via recent siege of Kobane, Syria. The findings show that arising perceptions and attitudes in Twitter are organized over political party/ideological stance dimensions.

Keywords

Turkey, Kobane, Syria, Foreign Policy, Twitter, Public Opinion, Social Media.

Citation

Hatipoğlu, Emre; Gökçe, Osman Zeki; Dinçer, Berkay and Saygın, Yücel, “Social Media and Turkish Foreign Policy: Turkish Foregin Policy Perceptions through Kobane Tweets”, International Relations, Volume 13, Issue 52, 2016, pp. 175-197.

Affiliations

• Emre HATİPOĞLU, Assoc. Prof., Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Sabancı University
• Osman Zeki GÖKÇE, Research Assistant, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Sabancı University
• Berkay DİNÇER, Research Assistant, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Sabancı University
• Yücel SAYGIN, Prof. Dr., Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Sabancı University