Dialogical public relations of the central government in public administration in the COVID-19 process: Examining the web pages and Twitter accounts of the ministries

Dialogical public relations theory has become easily applicable thanks to internet technologies that offer two-way communication opportunities with target audiences. Studies emphasizing that the communication between organizations and target audiences can be based on dialogue, similar to interpersonal communication, through internet technologies, has started to increase. The most important technologies that organizations can communicate with their target audiences based on dialogue are websites and social media platforms. Establishing dialogic relationships with websites has also inspired the first practical work in the field. In the study conducted by Kent and Taylor, it was revealed that it is possible to establish dialogic relations through websites with five principles of dialogic communication. Dialogical communication principles, which consist of the dialogic cycle, usefulness of information, ease of use of the interface, the rule of keeping visitors on the site and re-visiting, includes the design of websites in a way to prepare the ground for dialogic communication. However, the existence of principles that allow dialogical communication is not considered sufficient for the emergence of dialogue. A real dialogue should have the communication characteristics that Kent and Taylor outlined. These traits include reciprocity, intimacy, empathy, risk, and commitment. Dialogical principles and features form the basis of this study. In the study, websites of ministries, which are one of the most important institutions of central government in Turkish public administration, are analyzed within the framework of dialogic principles, and their use of social media in the context of dialogic communication features. With these analyzes, it has been tried to reveal the dialogic public relations of the central government in public administration. For this purpose, the websites and Twitter accounts of all ministries, whose number was 16, were examined during the study period. Ministries' Twitter usage was analyzed at the time when the first general curfew was imposed due to the Covid-19 outbreak. It was deemed important to use new communication technologies in a manner that incorporates dialogic principles and features in the context of public relations, in a period when public communication is most sensitive and needed. It has been evaluated that the level of dialogic public relations can be understood more clearly in this period. Quantitative and qualitative content analysis methods were used together in the study. As a result of the analysis, the level of usage of the dialogic communication principles of the websites was not found sufficient. Web sites are good at the usefulness of information. However, although they have a high potential for visitor requests and complaints, they have been found to be very weak in the use of the dialogic cycle principle, which involves more exchanges. In social media, on the other hand, it is evaluated that there is a tendency to other dialogic features other than proximity. However, the level of dialogic communication is below adequate. Keywords: Dialogical Public Relations, Public Administration, Covid-19, Websites, Social Media.