Comparative Analysis Of Written Press and Twitter Agenda In Terms Of Agenda Setting Theory

It has been observed that individuals started to locate mass media tools of modern society at the center of their lives with the prevalence of internet use in information era. Written and visual media mostly refer to social media in their news and their contents recently, as well. The most popular Web 2.0 based social network, a micro-blog service, Twitter has turned into a social media that has been used by the politicians, artists, writers and drawers and surely opinion leaders. Most of the users that have been referred share their information, allegations and discourses here in the first place. For that reason, people that direct the written and visual press and create news turn into users with active account and follow that network regularly. We come across with a news and content originated from Twitter in the written or visual press almost every day. Sometimes, Twitter-centered and thematic news can set agenda and start or direct a discussion in the society. Microblog web page, quickly being popular in Turkey and reached a mass user group, Twitter gives a new and different meaning to the concept of gate keeping, frequently used in the agenda setting. Because Twitter has become a principal tool to reach to the news. In this paper, the connection and variability between the headlines of the first five newspapers sold at that period of time and Trending Topic accepted as Twitter agenda in Twitter Turkey in two different time frames at 3-8 April 2014 and at the same date next year. In this paper, qualitative based content analysis method has been used for the influence and direction of Twitter on the media agenda and quite the opposite. It has been observed as a result of the practical comparisons that there are concurrent connection and a set of difference due to the economical and political reasons between the agenda of the written media and Twitter agenda. It has been concluded that micro blog web page and known by the public, Twitter is an important news source and has a power to set the agenda.