Azerbaijan Country Image in Context of International Public Relation: Newspaper Websites

Abstract

Nowadays the image is everything. People, ideas, products, cities and politicians and countries always use images. With the increase of communication in recent years, the images of the countries have started to change rapidly. Country image can be defined as the feelings, thoughts and attitudes of other people about any other country. The formation of the country’s image is influenced by different elements such as the discourses of the leaders, the quality of the products produced in the country, democratic practices, the level of education of the people, cultural and artistic activities and tourism potential. The current image of a country can be changed very quickly for different reasons. The aim of this study is to examine the representation of Azerbaijan in the news of Turkish internet web pages of Turkish newspapers. In the study, it is evaluated how the country image take place in the newspapers through this representation. It is thought that this study will also contribute to the field of the international public relations. The study sample consist of Turkey’s first four best-selling newspaper’s web sites. In the study, the news of the relevant newspapers were examined between 01 October-31 December 2017. The study was analyzed with content analysis method. 636 news were analyzed in the study. According to results of the study, the first three topics in the news are economy, politics, and sports. The representative of Azerbaijan in Turkish press is mostly positive and neutral. Most of the news are about the Azerbaijanis living in Turkey or who participated in the activities related sport, economy and cultural/art in Turkey. The number of activities in Azerbaijan is quite low. It is thought that Azerbaijan government should start the promotion activities about its country and wealth of the country.