Thomas Vitiello's (Ph.D. Candidate) Success

Thomas Vitiello (Ph.D. Sabanci University), Ali Çarkoğlu (Koç University) and Mert Moral (Koç University) have received the Elizabeth H. Nelson Prize, for the Best Paper from a Society in Transition presented at the 2012 WAPOR Annual Conference in Hong-Kong 14-16 June.

Paper Title:

Voter Advise Applications in Practice: Answers to Some Key Questions from Turkey

Abstract:
In this paper we investigate the effect of the media events that promoted the Turkish Voter Advice Application website (www.oypusulasi.org) in the 2011 Turkish Parliamentary elections. Our research design combines data on the dates and medium used for the promotion of the VAA with factual data on the number of connections received, the recommendations received by users, and the ‘propensity to vote’ (PTV) for each party by users. By running a multiple-interrupted time series (MITS) model, we find that there is a ‘double-screen’ effect in the promotion campaign. In fact, the VAA was promoted through traditional media, such as television and newspapers, and through internet-based communications. We also find that the political parallelism characterizing the Turkish media system has an important impact on the composition of the users. Voters supporting conservative parties only were attracted to the website when conservative leaning media mentioned it.