Fabricating “the people” – Negotiating Claims of Representation in Social Media in Post-Gezi Turkey
C01
Leitung
Mitarbeit
Turkey's recent history cannot be comprehended without the transformations of social media platforms, while the increased popularity of social media cannot be comprehended without their changed political significance. In the unique case of political debates on Twitter in post-Gezi Turkey, this subproject critically investigates how and by whom popular positions and opinions in social media have been made visible, measured, problematised, attacked, changed or even fabricated. The project raises important questions for understanding the intertwined relationship between popularisation and representation in social media platforms. To this end, the project draws on a variety of approaches and methods to social media research, combining digital methods, ethnographic and technographic approaches, qualitative media analysis, methods of software and further develops automation research in social media along a platform perspective. From the ecological perspective of media, it offers an empirical perspective on the conflicting popularisation practices of social media and contributes to the understanding of desired and undesired attention: the conflict arena of the popular.