The use of Twitter as a communication tool of municipalities in the pandemic process: The case of Mersin

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected Turkey as well as the whole world in a short time. The fact that the virus that caused the epidemic was new, and that the public did not know about the methods of protection, caused the virus to spread faster. In addition to that, the false information produced in this process reached large masses through social media, and also negatively affected public health. As such, the need for individuals to access accurate and reliable information quickly has come to the fore. In parallel with the requirements, due to its proximity to the public, it has become important for local governments to use social media accounts effectively in order to prevent information pollution during the epidemic, to announce the virus protection methods announced by experts, and to increase individual awareness against the virus. In this context, the thesis analyzes how municipalities use Twitter, one of the social media platforms, during the epidemic. In the light of the data obtained, it is considered that the municipalities included in the study do not use their Twitter accounts sufficiently to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, but rather, the accounts are used to announce the activities of the municipalities to citizens.