Semiotic Analysis of Political Party Posters Used in The Local Elections Held on March 31st, 2024 in Türkiye in the Context of Linguistics

In democratic countries, members of parliament and local administrators come to power through elections. With the beginning of the right to vote and be elected by Turkish citizens, political parties and politicians have made efforts to establish direct political communication with the society. To be successful, parties have become aware of the importance of conveying their mission and projects to the public. Good communication shows itself with the right message given and the effect this message has on the public. For this, it is necessary to prepare and present audio, visual and pictorial advertising and promotional materials that appeal to the eyes and ears of the voters. Politicians make extensive use of linguistics and semiotics to influence and persuade voters’ behaviour with these tools. The aim of the present study is to analyse the signs of the posters used by political parties as political communication tools in the local elections held in Türkiye on March 31, 2024, in the light of the concepts of linguistics and semiotics developed by Ferdinand de Saussure, Charles Sanders Peirce and Roland Barthes, who lived in the twentieth century. Additionally, the slogans, the images of the leaders, the preferred colours on the posters as well as the messages conveyed by the visual elements, are interpreted using sampling, data collection, linguistic and semiotic analysis methods. In this study, it was determined that the election posters used linguistic and semiotic elements, and these messages were tried to be explained.