Nature-woman metaphor in social media as an instrument of public relations applied by environmentalist non-governmental organizations: Yesil Artvin Dernegi as an example

Having started with industrialization, continuing to grow at a global scale and holding a crucial place among the social problems in our age, environmental issues increase each day and pose a great threat to the life on the surface of the earth. Our nature, which is our most treasured heritage, causes social concern for destructions involving consumption, like environmental waste, chemical threats, hydro-electric power plant projects, fires, building and road constructions. Socially, this concern is turning into a struggle in non-governmental organizations where there are volunteering participants, are self-producing, are autonomous systems from the government, are dependent on a legal system, and are organized social fields and it creates the main agenda of non-governmental organizations which come into being through the contribution of citizens who want to voice their aims and ideals within an ecological aims framework, to make governmental authorities hear them, and to be able to perform their civic duties in public arena collectively. Non-governmental organizations, which are created on an environmental theme in accordance with their aims, employ various public relations activities and aim to create a social agenda, to draw the attention of governmental authorities, and to bring the society together at a common point with those activities. In this struggle for nature, creating an effective communication network in both institutional and in public areas, inspiring target groups, organizing and activating them are indispensible for non-governmental organizations. In this respect, environmentalist non-governmental organizations that employ several public relations means have kept abreast of the revolutions of our age and have begun to emphasize communication activities through social media. In Turkey, particularly recently, the Yeşil Yol project, hydro-electric power plant works and mining activities have become the focus of those posts and women, who lead activist groups, prevent construction equipment from working, carrying banners on the front lines, stand guard in mining areas and constitute the source of main slogans, have started to draw the attention of the society. In this study, the perception of women in the communication activities of environmentalist non-governmental organizations will be investigated in terms of women's socio-ecological role, and the nature-women association, which is put forward in eco-feminist philosophy, will be sought as the nature-women metaphor, which is reflected in the communication activities of environmentalist non-governmental organizations. Key Words: Civil Society, Environmentalist Non-Governmental Organizations, Eco-Feminism, Nature-Women Metaphor