Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Faculty Member of Social Sciences Department, University of Isfahan
Abstract
Social media platforms play a prominent role in the construction of various political discourses. Among these platforms, the X social network (formerly Twitter) stands out as one of the most popular social media platforms for political actors in Iran. This activity intensifies during political events such as parliamentary elections, effectively providing a relative assessment of political and social views and insights. Various political discourses emerge from this collection of insights, views, perspectives, and political viewpoints. This research aims to identify the political discourses that emerged and gained authority around the 12th Iranian Parliament elections on the X social network. To this end, the network of likes for electoral content was visualized using Gephi software, and the authority variable was calculated. Then, a critical analysis of the authoritative discourses was conducted using Fairclough's approach. The research findings revealed that the official, reformist and moderate, principlist, critical, opposition, and monarchist discourses were the discourses formed around the parliamentary elections. Moreover, the evolution of the most authoritative discourses surrounding the parliamentary elections begins with the official discourse and ends with the critical and unofficial discourse. Complaints about the prevalence of immorality and vulgarity; the necessity of avoiding labeling expert candidates; and the need for rational political action were among the components of the critical discourse. The X network's authoritative discourses around the parliamentary elections consistently employed the language of sarcasm and humor in different time periods. It seems that this type of language serves as a means of expressing opinions with no consequences.
The X social network, formerly known as Twitter, was launched in 2006 and quickly became one of the leading social media platforms. In 2016, it was claimed that 313 million people were active users of this social network per month. In 2018, the name "Twitter" appeared in the titles of approximately 61,300 academic articles, and this number is still growing. X has been described as the "nervous system of the planet" and the "global newsroom," hosting a massive amount of online data about social behavior and communication (Burgess & Baym, 2022: 3). In recent years, this social network has played a special role in political and social events around the world. This role has prompted researchers and experts in media studies to pay special attention to X in their political and social research.
The aim of this research is to study the X social network in more depth and to examine its discursive dimensions concerning the 12th Iranian Parliament elections in February 2024, as one of the most important political events in Iran. This election is the first to be held after the protests of 2023, and examining its various aspects can be a key to understanding many of Iran's political issues.
According to statistics published by the Beta Research Center in 2023, the number of Iranian X users was about 3.2 million. Naturally, this number of active users of a social network allows for the creation of various types of political discourse on the X social network, discourses that are not confined to the media and are connected to different layers of individual and social life in Iran. To be more precise, discursive knowledge can be considered the closest and deepest form of knowledge about society; discourse analysis considers language and text as social objects that are seen by critical theory as facilitating and reproducing relations of power and domination (Forchtner, 2017: 267).
A more precise understanding of the political discourses on X about political events such as elections leads to a deeper understanding of society. This is because media discourses, especially those on social media, emerge from societal issues and directly impact social cognition. This can be considered important by policymakers and political planners, leading to precise social, political, and economic policies. On the other hand, neglecting the mechanisms and discursive elements governing the important social media platform X can result in a deep gap between people of society and politicians. This can create more ambiguity for the government/sovereignty.
Marchant et al. (2016) analyzed different communities on Twitter and the impact of advertising campaigns on the 2016 Iranian parliamentary elections. They identified 46 categories of users, from human rights activists to reformist and principlist political commentators, tech advocates, and literature enthusiasts. The researchers found that while a significant portion of Twitter content is political, a group of users are engaged in everyday writing, posting jokes, nonsense, and flirtatious messages. Another finding of the study was the widespread presence of Iranians living abroad who connect with activists and journalists inside Iran. The research emphasizes that the mutual ties between these two groups are considerably high, providing an opportunity for those distanced from the political atmosphere inside Iran to engage in the development of political and social discourses within the country.
Numerous studies have also focused on the political activism of citizens and users on Twitter. Chen (2011) concluded that a significant part of people's activity on Twitter should be analyzed in terms of their need to connect with others. Also, Li and Oh (2013) found that information seeking and socialization, meaning connecting with others and building a network aligned with one's values and needs, are among the main reasons people join and use Twitter. Hosch-Dayican et al. (2016) concluded that the political function of Twitter for individuals is nothing more than expressing dissatisfaction with political issues and topics. In fact, people use Twitter to express their dissatisfaction about politics rather than promoting political candidates or parties.
Colleoni et al. (2014) discovered other dimensions of Twitter usage. They described the behavior of users on social media as "homophilic." This means that users often only connect with a political party that is closest to their own political position and views. This phenomenon can be best described by the concept of "echo chambers." In other words, users' activities on Twitter are such that they are only exposed to their own desired views and opinions, greatly limiting the possibility of engaging with different views and opposing ideas. Such these Ideas have developed by scholars like Conover et al. (2021). They have been insisted on polarized communities in Twitter.
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