Public diplomacy: Evaluating Asia and the world's perception of Turkey on Twitter

ABSTRACT Unlike the classical diplomacy, public diplomacy has emerged as a soft power-based diplomacy approach that focused on the public and civil society, includes non-state actors. The increasing importance of the media and the more transparent implementation of policies in front of the public made it necessary for states to be accountable to the public. This necessity has increased the sensitivity towards local and international public opinion and states have had to consider the ideas and perceptions of actors other than themselves while making policies. As a matter of fact, issues such as democratization and human rights took place more on the agenda and this situation led the states to pay attention to the nature of the image they display. In this direction, it has become necessary for domestic and foreign policies to be within the framework of legitimacy. Thus, in order to gain legitimacy, states have made efforts to inform and influence the foreign public as well as their own public opinion, and public diplomacy has become increasingly important. Public diplomacy, which is a new field of study in Turkey and gained importance professionally after the 2000s, is the main subject of this thesis. Carrying out effective studies in this field, Turkey has started to focus on public diplomacy activities in Asia. In addition to public institutions and organizations, the activities of non-governmental organizations and the influence of the cinema and TV series, Turkey's public diplomacy in Asia has grown significantly. As a result of changes in the global system such as the evolution towards the communication and information society, and the developments in communication technologies, social media has emerged with concepts such as non-state actors, civil society and public opinion. With the integration of social media into the international system, states have made an effort to exist in virtual environments. In our thesis study, taking this situation into consideration, an evaluation was made on Twitter in order to measure the perception of Turkey in foreign public opinion. The perception of Turkey in the global world in general and in Asia in particular has been examined. For this, tweets written on different topics on Twitter and the domains of these tweets according to the followers of the users were evaluated. In this context, an alternative method that can be used to understand foreign public opinion is presented. With the analysis made, it has been emphasized once again that it is necessary for public diplomacy to direct them in the desired direction and towards the targeted goal, by looking at what the foreign public is saying. As a result, it is aimed that our thesis will contribute to future public diplomacy studies. Keywords: Public Diplomacy, Turkish Public Diplomacy, Asia, Foreign Public Opinion, Twitter