The role of digital media in image production: A study on the ratio of the image reflected to consumers by corporations

The aim of this thesis is to discuss how the corporates reflect their corporate identities through digital media, whether the images of the corporates are formed in the desired direction after the identity presentation and the level of dependence of the image formation process on digital media through sectoral competitors. In this context, in the first part of the thesis, the concept of the image are mentioned. In the second part, digital media channels and how they can be used in terms of image formation are discussed. In the third part, the image gap that the corporates want to create and the image perceived by consumers are compared in digital media through the sector determined within the scope of the thesis. In this context, through digital media the extent to which corporates reflect degree the image they want to create to consumers and the dependence between the image and digital media in this process are discussed. In the thesis, firstly, digital media activities of the corporates were examined with content analysis and the images that the corporates tried to create on certain subjects were determined. Afterwards, a questionnaire was applied to the consumers of the corporates and it was determined how the consumers perceive the corporate on the same subjects. As a result of the research, it was revealed that the selected corporates were able to reflect the desired images to their consumers to a large extent. According to the results of the Chi-Square analysis conducted, it was found that the perception of the corporate image by consumers is not dependent on digital media. In this direction, it can be claimed other activities (sponsorship, advertising, etc.) are more important than digital media activities in the image creation and maintenance phase. Since this research is limited to digital media, the answer to the question of which activities are more important in the image creation and maintenance phase is left to future researches. It can be said that the image formation process of future research should determine the level of dependence on other variables without forgetting that the results may vary from sector to sector.