AI and Hypermedia Agenda at BAIBÜ: Digital Public Sphere, Algorithms and Immigrant Narratives Discussed

Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University Faculty of Communication hosted remarkable academic presentations as part of the 2nd International Artificial Intelligence and Hypermedia Symposium. The session titled “Social Media, AI and Hypermedia: Case Studies on the United Nations”, which took place in Hall Z-130 on Tuesday, May 13, featured important discussions on the axis of social media, intercultural communication and digital public sphere.

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Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tülin Sepetçi, who moderated the session and chaired the hall, drew attention to the content organization of the digital age in her opening assessment of the definition of hypermedia with the statement, “Hypermedia is a framework formed by hyperlinks.”

Immigrant Discourses in the Digital Public Sphere: Hate Exceeded 80%

The first presentation of the day addressed the study titled “Immigrant Discourses in Social Media: A Text Mining Analysis on Twitter” prepared by Uşak University Faculty of Communication Assistant Professor Duygu Ergün, Alperen Aydın and Assoc. Prof. Savaş Takan.

In the presentation, a large tweet dataset collected on the X (formerly Twitter) platform with keywords such as “migration”, “immigration” and “Syrian” between 2022-2024 was analyzed with the Python-based Tweepy library. In the study, which used artificial intelligence-supported methods such as LDA topic modeling, sentiment analysis and hate speech detection, it was stated that the discourses in the digital public sphere were shaped more within the framework of geopolitical security, disaster and humanitarian aid as of 2023; and shifted to an identitarian and divisive language in 2024.

Dr. Ergün stated that hate speech exceeded 80%, especially in the summer of 2024, and said, “The social tension in the post-disaster and post-election period has reached an explosion point in digital media.” According to the analysis, anger and fear constituted the basic emotional axis of digital discourse. In humanitarian crisis periods such as earthquakes, short-term waves of empathy were observed. However, it was emphasized that negative emotions generally dominated the discourse and individual reactions became a cultural norm.

Social Media Algorithms Threaten Freedom

In the second presentation, Res. Asst. Kaan Şentürk from the Department of New Media and Communication at Ibn Haldun University evaluated the impact of social media algorithms on freedom of expression within the framework of Habermas’s theory of the public sphere.

Şentürk, who said, “Algorithms are the hidden architects of the digital world,” stated that the flow of content shaped by users’ interactions causes individuals to be exposed to content that is only compatible with their own views. Emphasizing that this situation restricts diversity of opinion, creates echo chambers and digital isolation, Şentürk stated that algorithms create a cycle of addiction after a while.

Şentürk, who drew attention to the fact that while artificial intelligence-based algorithms can highlight some ideas, they can label different opinions as “marginal” and make them invisible, said, “Freedom of expression is being damaged by shadow bans, filtering and commercialized content policies.” He drew attention to the fact that social media has moved away from these principles when compared to Habermas’s ideal of a public sphere in the 18th century, and argued that the digital public sphere should be restructured with ethical and transparency principles.

The symposium opened up discussions on the transformations caused by digitalization in communication in different dimensions, and once again drew attention to the importance of interdisciplinary studies on artificial intelligence, social media and cultural discourses in the academic community.

At the end of the session, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tülin Sepetçi presented participation and thank-you certificates to all speakers.