The Use of Twitter for Diplomatic Mission and Image Portrayal: Case Study Turkish Embassies in Africa
- October 19, 2021
- Posted by: rsispostadmin
- Categories: IJRISS, Social Science
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue IX, September 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186
Mussa Abdulla Ameir
Department of Public Relations and Publicity, Kocaeli University, Turkey
Abstract: In this time of globalization, People base their perceptions and decisions toward a country on its representative (image) of different aspects. Countries are rated and compared based on their political stability, roles in international affairs, economic development, foreign policies and the attractions of a culture and its peoples. This trend has changed how diplomats engage with their foreign public in the place where they are located by incorporating social media in diplomatic mission . Twitter, in particular, is seen as a main tool which is utilized by diplomatic actors to reach their audiences. Currently, Turkey has shown purposeful and meaningful efforts to embrace Twitter as a new tool of public diplomacy to fulfil its diplomatic missions. Based on this claim, this study aimed to analyze the effectiveness of Turkish embassies in African countries in the use of Twitter to engage with foreign audience and image portraying to African countries. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were used to analyze data collected from 10 twitter accounts of Turkish embassies stationed in Africa from November 2019 to March 2020. The results show that although the average engagement across the continent is fairly high, the frequency of day to day posting by the embassies is low. This means that Turkish embassies in Africa are not using social media to their full potential to maintain a good relationship with the countries and effectively increase the visibility of a country image. Besides, Turkish embassies portray Turkey as friendly, the most generous and diplomatic country.
Key Words: Public diplomacy, social media, image portrayal, Turkish digital diplomacy
I. INTRODUCTION
The invention of the internet and social media, in general, was another remarkable revolution in this information age just after the radio and TV. It has taken this advancement of information to the highest level which was never thought before. It has brought about drastic changes in all aspects of life including economy, business, culture, education, politics, military technology, and public diplomacy.
Public diplomacy scholars have claimed that the involvement of social media platform into the practice of diplomacy may create a new form of diplomatic communication which allows the diplomatic practitioners to create and maintain the long-term relationships with foreign public stationed in different countries. Since social media by its origin has a power raging from creating social interaction, facilitating win-win communication between actors and the
