Page - 115 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/02

Making Space, Claiming Place | 115www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/2, 107–131 is evident in the ways these politicians often make use of selfies and vlogs and interact with supporters through Q&A sessions on Facebook Live.38 Ad- ditionally, this approach fits well with trends of engaging with politics in a far less formal manner and goes beyond the electoral focus.39 In general, DENK’s Facebook use is a good example of a party personaliz- ing its social media use for a specific target group.40 Tunahan Kuzu, who is currently DENK’s number two, was one of the three most-followed politi- cians on Facebook as of 2016, reflecting his active presence on the platform, and setting a precedent for the years after that.41 On his individual Facebook page, photos of him “behind the scenes” with DENK or on vacation with family members (and even a selfie of him taking the Covid-19 vaccine) are mixed with more formal posts regarding his work as a politician, thus offer- ing a more personalized “human” image of him than one would likely find in mainstream media.42 “Do Not Fall for It”: Mainstream Media on the Stand When DENK posted a video on their YouTube channel DENK-TV in June 2016 titled “The media does not want you to know this. Do not fall for it!”,43 they probably had little idea how much impact it would have on the said me- dia. Even though DENK has had a tense relationship with most established news outlets since the beginning, after it posted this video, that relation- ship seemed to worsen significantly. Several news outlets criticized DENK for creating doubts about the integrity of Dutch mainstream media and ac- cused them of vilifying critical journalists.44 In the video, the four leading members of DENK, Selçuk Öztürk, Farid Azarkan, Sylvana Simons, and Tunahan Kuzu, warn the audience about 38 Among Dutch politicians, social media is widely used as a campaigning tool, with more than 90% of candidates in the 2012 elections active on social media platforms. Social me- dia also seems to induce a more personalized style of campaigning. For more on this, see Jacobs/Spierings 2015. 39 Kahne/Middaugh/Allen 2015. 40 Spierings/Jacobs 2020. 41 Broekhuizen 2016. 42 For more photos, see Kuzu’s official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/KiesKuzu. 43 DENK TV 2016 (translation by author). 44 van Teeffelen 2018.