Political Preferences of Generation Y University Student with Regards to Governance and Social Media: A Study on March 2014 Local Elections

Abstract

Governance denotes transparency, clarity, accountability, participation, effectiveness, respect to law and social responsibility. These aspects necessitate that everybody should be aware of their right and responsibilities and also claim them. Thus, a new citizenship consciousness has been developing. This consciousness symbolizes a new individual identity claiming their rights for problems and demanding high standards. In this context, the means of social media are getting used more and more by young publics to realize governance, especially Generation Y. Generation Y in Turkey has drawn attention during the Gezi Park protests emerged as an activist movement. Accused of being totally out of politics, even ‘apolitical’, Generation Y has shown that they have something to say about the world as well as the society they are living in and also they are not afraid of expressing their opinions. Social media are particularly preferred because of fast and easy access to the electorate, one-to-one and intimate communication opportunity, providing correct information spontaneously and preventing rumors. Particularly Twitter, as one of the means of social media, is preferred in election propaganda due to providing instant messaging and effective communication. The aim of this article is to manifest the way that the youth called Generation Y express their political preferences during a local election period through their use of social media. With regard to the hypotheses above pertaining to political source, political preference and political action, this study intends to present how effectively these young people demonstrate their political preferences as a way of expressing their political sources during March 24, 2014 local elections as well as their political action attitudes by comparing the election results and the discourses in social media. Thus, a research study will be implemented to Generation Y university students.

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