Evaluation Of University's Tweets Within The Framework Of Public Diplomacy

Abstract

Public diplomacy is one of the significant elements of current diplomatic activities. Public diplomacy is an activity that should be taken into consideration not only by the state but also by various institutions, including NGOs. Universities have undertaken a significant role in terms of public diplomacy since they engage in foreign students. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the university twitter posts within the framework of public diplomacy. The population of the study is the universities engaging with foreign students in Türkiye. The sample of the study is the top five universities with the highest number of foreign students in Türkiye. This study is a qualitative cross-sectional study. The document analysis technique is applied as the data collection technique in the research. The tweets of universities are evaluated within the framework of soft powers of public diplomacy. In the study, 367 tweets are reviewed. It was determined that more than half of the posts in the study were shared by İstanbul and Anadolu University. While most of the university posts were in a form of tweets, some of them were shared as retweets. While half of the tweets have hashtags and photos, very few of which have videos, links, and mentions. The followers of all universities have interacted through comments, shares, and likes. According to the study, about one-third of the posts are about education. The posts about education are in first, or second place in all universities. The posts about science and publicity are in second, or third place in all universities. Although the subjects of culture, art, media, sports, and international students hold an undeniable role for public diplomacy in university posts, they are shared in a small number. In the study, it has been determined that approximately one third of the posts are on subjects other than public diplomacy. Most of the topics are about the academic and administrative announcements topic. Other topics are followed “celebration and commemoration”, “remembrance of old teacher”, “online patients’ examination”, and “recommendations of the chairman of the board of trustees”.