Digital Memory and Populism| Remembering Gezi: The Digital Memory Practices on Twitter During the Anniversaries in the Face of Populist Challenges

Authors

  • Duygu Karataş Siegen University
  • Mine Gencel Bek Siegen University

Keywords:

memory, social movements, digital media, populism, Twitter, activism, Gezi

Abstract

Building on the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the tweets posted during the anniversary weeks between the years 2014 and 2021, this empirical study examines digital memory practices in the face of populist communication challenges on Twitter for the Gezi protests, which marked a critical milestone in the political history of Turkey. Based on existing literature on digital memory practices, empirical data, and contextual considerations, we proposed a typology of digital memory practices on how the Gezi was remembered on Twitter. We identified five types of memory practices: representational and symbolic practices; commemorating martyrs; legitimizing and resisting fake memories; bridging memories and public agendas; and keeping up and mobilizing practices. This study also shows how populist communication tactics extend to the realm of memorialization, wherein activists challenge them in their digital memory practices by refuting false accusations, resisting fake memories, and subverting misrepresentations.

Author Biographies

Duygu Karataş, Siegen University

Duygu Karatas is a Postdoctoral Researcher for the project “Fabricating “the people” – Negotiating Claims of Representation in Social Media in Post-Gezi Turkey” within the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) “Transformations of the Popular” at the University of Siegen. After several years of professional experience in the fields of marketing, public relations, advertising and customer relations management, Duygu received her master’s degree in media and communications from City University London in 2013 with the support of the Jean Monnet Scholarship by the European Union. Being awarded a full Ph.D. scholarship from the University of Westminster’s Communication and Media Research Institute in 2014, she obtained her Ph.D. degree from the University of Westminster with the research project “Occupy Gezi’s Collective Identity and the Role of Twitter in its Construction” in 2018. She convened various modules at the undergraduate level, as visiting lecturer at the London College of Communication in the University of the Arts London and taught seminars as a visiting lecturer at the University of Westminster. Her research interests are social media, populism, popularity and popular, digital methods and automation, digital activism, social movements, collective identity and memory, post-truth politics, digital culture, alternative media, participatory culture, and democracy.

Mine Gencel Bek, Siegen University

Mine Gencel Bek is a member and Co-Principal Investigator of Project C01 “Fabricating 'the people' – Negotiating Claims of Representation in Social Media in Post-Gezi Turkey / Fabricating 'the people' – Negotiating Claims of Representation in Social Media in Post- Gezi Turkey" in the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Center Transformations of the Popular (2021-2024) at the University of Siegen. She completed her PhD at Loughborough University in 1999, entitled Communicating Capitalism: A Study of the Contemporary Turkish Press. In it, she examined the structural elements of the changing journalism industry, news as text and the role of journalists in the news production process. In 2013 and 2014 she was an associate professor at MIT Comparative Media Studies, Open Documentary Lab and Civic Media Lab. Her academic career began in 1991 as a research assistant at Ankara University. 2008-2010 she worked as Vice Chair of KASAUM, Women's Studies Center at Ankara University. In February 2017, she was dismissed by decree as a professor in the Department of Journalism at the Faculty of Communication Studies at Ankara University for signing the petition of the Academics for Peace initiative.

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Published

2023-03-02

Issue

Vol. 17 (2023)

Section

Special Sections

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