The psychological power of media in the digital age: Social media usage and perception management in the framework of agenda melding approach

This study is organized around revealing the effect of social media, which is positioned as a psychological power or an ideological power, in the process of perception management and agenda melding. In this direction, it is aimed to determine the social media usage practices of the Directorate of Communications and to reveal the effect of this use on the perception management and agenda melding process. Since the research has both quantitative and qualitative characteristics, it has mixed method characteristics. The design of the study was determined as "convergent parallel mixed method design". In the quantitative part of the research, two different conceptually justified models were created based on the literature, and the structural equation model (SEM) was used as a statistical method in order to test these models. Data were collected from 533 participants through a two-part questionnaire developed to test these models; these data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 and Amos 19.0 statistical programs. With the survey application carried out, the results of the research both on the use of social media in general and the Directorate of Communications were revealed. In the qualitative part, the messages shared on the official Twitter account of the Directorate of Communications were analyzed and interpreted with the content analysis method using the Maxqda 2022 package program. As a result of the research, it was determined that the use of social media in general does not have a direct effect on perception management, but it has a statistically significant and high-strength direct effect on agenda melding. In addition, it has been determined that agenda melding has a statistically significant and direct effect on perception management. It has been determined that the direct and significant effect of the use of social media by the Directorate of Communications on perception management is quite low, but the indirect effect on the agenda melding variable is quite strong. Therefore, social media shapes perception management through agenda melding. When the quantitative findings and qualitative findings are combined; in the context of the Social media usage practices of the Directorate of Communications, it was concluded that the posts were mostly related to information, announcements and issues related to the President of the Republic, and that the posts on other subjects were quite limited, and suggestions were presented on this issue.