How does intervention by authority figures affect polarization in the Turkish twittersphere?

Abstract

The thesis study examines the impact of statements made by authority figures on political polarization observed in the Turkish Twittersphere, focusing on the divisive conversations over Turkey’s exit from the Istanbul Convention and sexual orientation of the star volleyball player Ebrar Karakurt. It draws from the most recent advances in the field of computational social science to conduct a novel study of political polarization through big data. In addition to proposing a methodological framework on how to study polarization on social media using innovative approaches, the findings of this study provide insights into the degree of polarization within the Turkish Twittersphere and illustrate how Twitter users react to messaging by authority figures.