THE EFFECT OF GENERATION Z'S PERCEPTION OF THE POLITICAL IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON VOTING BEHAVIOR AND THE INTERMEDIATE ROLE OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION BEHAVIOR IN SOCIAL MEDIA

Abstract

Considering that a significant part of Gen Z members will be active voters in the upcoming elections, it is an important problem how political actors will reach this generation, which was born and grew up in technological developments. Considering that social media applications, which create significant changes in both individual behaviors, social relations, and decision-making processes with technological developments, are one of the indispensable communication habits of Gen Z, it would be a the right choice for political actors to turn to social media in order to reach the Gen Z. For this reason, the main purpose of this research is to determine the relationship between the Perception of the political impact of social media and the perception of the impact of social media on the voting decision. On the other hand, determining the mediating variable role of political communication behavior in social media in this relationship is one of the problems of the research. For this purpose, the data from  the online survey study conducted with 606 Generation Z individuals were analyzed. As a result, it was seen that political communication behavior in social media has a partial mediation role in the relationship between the perception of the effect of social media on politics and the perception of the effect of social media on voting behavior.