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.
TopIntroduction
Public diplomacy, also termed as soft power, reveals the changes that countries make by using their cultural values to achieve their foreign policy goals. In public diplomacy, countries conveying their own messages to the target audience is one of the most important stages of this soft power. Indeed, with the attraction created by soft power, countries can both influence target countries and ensure the voluntary participation of people in the target country to the messages and values of the source country. Recently, it has been observed that Turkey has frequently resorted to the tool of public diplomacy as a soft power. In this process, it is understood that Turkey has intensively used its heritage of cultural and historical values as a public diplomacy tool.
The concept of public diplomacy was first recognized with the concept of soft power. The concept was first used by Edmund Gullion in 1965 in the sense of “international flow of information and ideas” (Sancar, 2012: 79). Joseph Nye, on the other hand, made the concept more comprehensive by stating that in order for a country to achieve the results it wants in world politics, there must be countries that admire the values of that country, take it as an example, envy its prosperity and opportunities, and follow it (Nye, 2005:14). As the phenomenon of communication has become widespread and more sophisticated in the globalizing world, this concept has also transformed into a new form. Since the second half of the twentieth century, communication and communication channels have become widespread due to the development of mass communication technologies, and accordingly, public diplomacy activities have increased and diversified.
The difference between diplomacy and public diplomacy is that diplomacy involves relations between representatives of countries and other international actors, while public diplomacy targets the entire public or informal groups, organizations and civil society organizations in a foreign society (Melissen, 2007: 12-13). Public perception is becoming increasingly important in international relations. Countries have to take into account both domestic and foreign public opinion while developing policies. In this context, in order for the policies developed to be accepted, it is necessary to win the hearts and minds of the target audience. In addition, states resort to the tools of public diplomacy to develop a positive image (Kocabıyık, 165). In general terms, public diplomacy refers to interacting with foreign public opinion. The main reason for the process of interaction with foreign public opinion is to change the behavior of that country in favor of national interests. In this process, other countries need to be educated, informed and included in the processes. At this point, public diplomacy has become a strategic communication tool (Efegil, 2018).
In addition to the classical diplomacy methods of delegation negotiations, official statements and diplomatic declarations, public diplomacy plays a supporting role in protecting national interests. Today, countries have started to use public diplomacy, which is defined as “winning hearts and minds”, in addition to classical diplomacy. This new public diplomacy is a new component of general diplomatic practices and is more than a form of propaganda conducted by diplomats. In this respect, public diplomacy is a new type of diplomatic relationship network that requires different skills, techniques and attitudes. For example, this situation was revealed in a report published in 2002 by Auswärtiges Amt, the ministry responsible for Germany's foreign policy and relations with the European Union. According to this report, public diplomacy in Europe was ranked as the number one priority among all fields (Melissen, 2005:11). As can be seen from this example, in addition to economic and political relations, interconnections at the civil society level are becoming increasingly important in inter-state relations. In this context, the international system has transformed into a structure in which the need for increasing international integration has emerged in the last quarter of the twentieth century (Keohane, 2002: 27-29). Thus, public diplomacy has become an important practice of international relations.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Social media: Is a collective term for websites and applications that focus on communication, community-based input, interaction, content-sharing, and collaboration. People use social media to stay in touch and interact with friends, family, and various communities.
Turkey: Officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. It shares borders with the Black Sea to the north; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq to the southeast; Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest. Cyprus is located off the south coast. Ankara is Turkey's capital, while Istanbul is its largest city and financial centre.
Twitter: Is an online news and social networking site where people communicate in short messages called tweets. Tweeting is posting short messages for anyone who follows you on Twitter, with the hope that your words are useful and interesting to someone in your audience. Another description of Twitter and tweeting might be microblogging. Some people use Twitter to discover interesting people and companies online, opting to follow their tweets.
New Media: Are forms of media that are computational and rely on computers and the Internet for redistribution. Some examples of new media are computer animations, video games, human-computer interfaces, interactive computer installations, websites, and virtual worlds. New media are often contrasted to “old media”, such as television, radio, and print media, although scholars in communication and media studies have criticized inflexible distinctions based on oldness and novelty. New media does not include analog broadcast television programs, feature films, magazines, or books – unless they contain technologies that enable digital generative or interactive processes.
Government: Is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a means by which organizational policies are enforced, as well as a mechanism for determining policy. In many countries, the government has a kind of constitution, a statement of its governing principles and philosophy. While all types of organizations have governance, the term government is often used more specifically to refer to the approximately 200 independent national governments and subsidiary organizations.
Diplomacy: Is the art and science of maintaining peaceful relationships between nations, groups, or individuals. Often, diplomacy refers to representatives of different groups discussing such issues as conflict, trade, the environment, technology, or security. People who practice diplomacy are called diplomats.
Digital Diplomacy: Also referred to as digiplomacy and ediplomacy (see below), has been defined as the use of the internet and new information communication technologies to help achieve diplomatic objectives. However, other definitions have also been proposed. The definition focuses on the interplay between internet and diplomacy, ranging from internet driven-changes in the environment in which diplomacy is conducted to the emergence of new topics on diplomatic agendas such as cybersecurity, privacy and more, along with the use of internet tools to practice diplomacy.
Public Diplomacy: In international relations, public diplomacy or people's diplomacy, broadly speaking, is any of the various government-sponsored efforts aimed at communicating directly with foreign publics to establish a dialogue designed to inform and influence with the aim that this foreign public supports or tolerates a government's strategic objectives.