EXAMINATION OF INSTAGRAM ACCOUNTS OF 2023 GENERAL ELECTIONS PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES WITH DISCOURSE-HISTORICAL APPROACH STRATEGIES

The transformation shaped by the impact of digitalization and globalization has caused information to play a central role in many areas from politics to society. The widespread and low-cost structure of digital communication tools, especially in election processes, has provided politicians with the opportunity to organize public opinion and mobilize voters. In this context, digital propaganda stands out as a form of communication based on computers and mobile devices used to interact with citizens online and influence public opinion. The transition to the Presidential System in Turkey, especially with the 2017 Referendum, has given importance to the position of the President, which is the head of the executive branch, in the mechanism of power. The candidates for the 2023 Presidential Elections in Türkiye were Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Sinan Oğan and Muharrem İnce. There was a strong competition among the presidential candidates during the 2023 General Elections process, and this competition has occasionally led to the emergence of polarizing and discriminatory discourse. One of the methods used in the literature to identify polarizing and discriminatory discourse is the Discourse-Historical Approach developed by the Vienna School of Critical Discourse Analysis. This study aims to reveal the discriminatory discourse used in the Instagram posts of the Presidential candidates during the election process by using the discourse strategies of the Discourse-Historical Approach.