Twitter as a Digital Channel of Public Diplomacy in Turkey

Abstract

Governments want to create foreign public opinion by spreading credible information to achieve their national goals, objectives, and interests. In the global balance of political power, it is important for a country to use the tools of public diplomacy. In the 21st century, Turkey intensively uses cultural values as a tool of public diplomacy. In this context, Turkey actively uses social media as a digital medium while promoting its cultural heritage as a soft power. Turkey, which has analyzed the impact of digital diplomacy well in the historical process, is using this field more and more widely. In this study, examples of the Republic of Turkey's public diplomacy practices on social media are presented and how it uses public diplomacy as soft power is investigated. In this context, four Twitter pages where public diplomacy is most widely used (The Republic of Türkiye Directorate of Communications, Turkish Maarif Foundation, TIKA, and Yunus Emre Institute) were analyzed through content analysis technique.