Sub-National Democracy and Politics Through Social Media, 2018
Local governments use social media tools to inform citizens, promote
themselves to their audience... more Local governments use social media tools to inform citizens, promote themselves to their audiences, collect feedback from citizens and use this feedback as input in the process of improving public services and policies. To achieve these goals, local governments need to reach out to the greatest number of people using a successful communication strategy. Post characteristics such as post type and category have an effect on the number of citizens reached by local governments and the amount of feedback received from them (such as the number of reactions, comments and shares). Therefore, the basic research question of the present study is as follows: What type and content of posts would help local governments increase the level of interaction with their citizens? In this context, this chapter aims to analyze the relationship between the types and categories of Facebook posts sent by the metropolitan and provincial municipalities in the Marmara Region of Turkey and the level of citizen interaction. In this study, the methods of content analysis and the Kruskal-Wallis test are used. The results of our analysis reveal that there is a significant relationship between post type and post category and citizen interaction level.
Günümüzde devletler vatandaşların tercihlerine dayalı daha rasyonel kamu politikaları geliştirmey... more Günümüzde devletler vatandaşların tercihlerine dayalı daha rasyonel kamu politikaları geliştirmeye ve daha iyi kamu hizmeti sunmaya yönelik bir baskı altındadırlar. Bu nedenle, son dönemde gerek gelişmiş gerekse gelişmekte olan ülkelerde gerçekleştirilen reformlar vatandaş-temelli kamu yönetimini inşa etmeyi hedeflemektedir. Kamu kurumu-vatandaş etkileşimini sağlamak vatandaş-temelli kamu yönetimini inşa etmenin önemli bir boyutunu oluşturmaktadır. Kamu kurumu-vatandaş etkileşimi, vatandaşların politika oluşturma ve hizmet sunma süreçlerine dâhil edilmesini ve kamu kurumları ile vatandaşlar arasındaki ilişkilerin geliştirilmesini gerektirmektedir. İnternet alanındaki son gelişmeleri yansıtan sosyal medya, bu ilişkinin geliştirilmesinde yeni fırsatlar sunma potansiyeline sahiptir. Çünkü, sosyal medyanın doğasında, ortak içerik üretimi ve iki yönlü iletişim vardır. Bununla birlikte, sosyal medyanın kamu kurumu-vatandaş etkileşimini destekleyip desteklemediğini analiz eden ampirik çalışmalara ihtiyaç duyulmaktadır. Bu bağlamda, bu çalışma bir ölçüm seti kullanarak, bir sosyal medya aracı olarak Facebook aracılığıyla Türkiye'deki belediyelerin vatandaşla etkileşim düzeylerini ölçmeyi ve belediyeleri bu açıdan tasnif etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Araştırmanın bulgularına göre, Türkiye'de Facebook'ta belediyelerin vatandaşla etkileşim düzeyi oldukça düşüktür. Bu bulgu, ilgili literatürdeki diğer çalışmaların bulguları ile uyumludur.
Kamu yönetiminin hukuka ve hakkaniyete uygun hareket etmesini sağlamak, katılımı teşvik etmek ve ... more Kamu yönetiminin hukuka ve hakkaniyete uygun hareket etmesini sağlamak, katılımı teşvik etmek ve devlet-vatandaş ilişkilerini iyileştirmek ombudsmanın temel görevleri arasındadır. Sosyal medya araçları bir ülkede ombudsmanın bu görevlerini başarıyla yerine getirebilmesine katkı sağlama potansiyeline sahiptir. Ancak, Türkiye'de ombudsman-sosyal medya ilişkisi ilgili literatürde analiz edilmiş bir konu değildir. Bu çalışma, Türkiye'de Twitter örneği bağlamında sosyal medya ve ombudsman arasındaki ilişkiye odaklanmaktadır. Bu bağlamda, çalışmanın amacı, içerik analizi yönteminden yararlanarak, Kamu Denetçiliği Kurumu'nun (KDK) Twitter'dan ne amaçla yararlandığını analiz etmek ve bu sosyal medya aracının Türkiye'de KDK'nın rolünü yerine getirmesine katkı sağlayıp sağlamadığını değerlendirmektir. Yapılan analizin bulgularına göre, Türkiye'de KDK, Twitter'dan vatandaşları kararlarına ve incelemelerine ilişkin bilgilendirme ve kurumu tanıtma amacıyla yararlanırken; katılımı teşvik etme ve vatandaşla iki yönlü iletişime geçme açısından Twitter'ı etkin bir şekilde kullanmamaktadır. KDK Twitter'ın sunduğu fırsatlardan tam anlamıyla yararlanmamaktadır.
Ombudsman and Social Media: An Empirical Analysis of the Twitter Use of Turkish Ombudsman Institution Abstract Ombudsmen essentially act to render public administration operate in line with law and principle of equity, encourage citizen participation, and improve citizen-state relations. Social media tools have potential to contribute ombudsman to fulfill these duties in a country. However, the relationship between ombudsman and social media in Turkey has not been analyzed in the relevant literature. This study focuses on the nature of this relationship within the context of Twitter case in Turkey. Using the method of content analysis, the aim of this study is to analyze for which purposes Turkish Ombudsman Institution uses Twitter, and evaluate whether this social media tool contributes Turkish Ombudsman Institution to fulfill its role or not. The findings of this study exhibit that Turkish Ombudsman Institution successfully uses Twitter for informing citizens on its decisions and inspection results as well as self-promotion. Nevertheless, it seems Twitter is not effectively employed by the Institution for encouraging citizen participation and interacting with citizens. As a conclusion, we have found that Turkish Ombudsman Institution has not completely benefited from the opportunities that Twitter offers for public institutions.
This article aims to analyse the extent to which metropolitan and provincial
municipalities in T... more This article aims to analyse the extent to which metropolitan and provincial
municipalities in Turkey take advantage of the opportunities offered by information and
communications technologies to strengthen democracy and to evaluate the factors affecting
the e-democracy adoption of municipalities in Turkey within the framework of spatial
data analysis. In this context, this study tries to contribute distinctively to the local
e-democracy literature by focusing on the investigation of whether there are any spatial
effects on e-democracy adoption of municipalities in Turkey. The findings of our analysis
show that while being the members of the same political party and geographical contiguity
do not have any impact, the variables of size, status, budget and Internet penetration
have impacts on the level of e-democracy adoption of municipalities in Turkey.
Günümüzde, ombudsman kurumu insan haklarını korumanın, demokrasiyi güçlendirmenin ve kamu yönetim... more Günümüzde, ombudsman kurumu insan haklarını korumanın, demokrasiyi güçlendirmenin ve kamu yönetiminin iyileştirilmesinin bir aracı olarak görülmektedir. Bununla birlikte, bir ülkede ombudsman kurumunun oluşturulması ondan beklenen faydaların kendiliğinden ortaya çıkacağı anlamına gelmemektedir. Bu kurumun başarılı olması için birtakım koşulların karşılanması gerekmektedir. Ombudsmanın medya tarafından güçlü bir şekilde desteklenmesi, bir ülkede ombudsmanın etkin bir şekilde faaliyet göstermesinin bir ön koşulu olarak kabul edilmektedir. Bu bağlamda, bu çalışma Türkiye’de ombudsmanın medya tarafından yeterince desteklenip desteklenmediğini analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu doğrultuda, bu çalışma Türkiye’de medyada ombudsmana dair çıkan haberlerin içerik analizini gerçekleştirerek, ampirik olarak ombudsman ve medya arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemekte ve Türkiye’de ombudsmanın etkin bir şekilde uygulanabilirliği tartışmalarına katkı sağlamaktadır.
The Use of Twitter by Mayors in Turkey: Tweets for Better Public Services? , 2013
This article aims to provide an overall picture of the use of Twitter as a significant social med... more This article aims to provide an overall picture of the use of Twitter as a significant social media tool by mayors in Turkey and to investigate, using content analysis and tweet categorization, whether Twitter is used by mayors in Turkey to offer better public services. Thus, this study focuses on the impact of Twitter in Turkey on transparent, participatory and citizen-oriented local public services. Our analysis has revealed that mayors in Turkey use Twitter especially to share information, send personal messages and share their location and activities. The use of Twitter for transparent, participatory and citizen-oriented public service delivery is not common among mayors. Twitter is adopted and used by mayors mostly for the purposes of self-promotion and political marketing in Turkey.
Sub-National Democracy and Politics Through Social Media, 2018
Local governments use social media tools to inform citizens, promote
themselves to their audience... more Local governments use social media tools to inform citizens, promote themselves to their audiences, collect feedback from citizens and use this feedback as input in the process of improving public services and policies. To achieve these goals, local governments need to reach out to the greatest number of people using a successful communication strategy. Post characteristics such as post type and category have an effect on the number of citizens reached by local governments and the amount of feedback received from them (such as the number of reactions, comments and shares). Therefore, the basic research question of the present study is as follows: What type and content of posts would help local governments increase the level of interaction with their citizens? In this context, this chapter aims to analyze the relationship between the types and categories of Facebook posts sent by the metropolitan and provincial municipalities in the Marmara Region of Turkey and the level of citizen interaction. In this study, the methods of content analysis and the Kruskal-Wallis test are used. The results of our analysis reveal that there is a significant relationship between post type and post category and citizen interaction level.
Günümüzde devletler vatandaşların tercihlerine dayalı daha rasyonel kamu politikaları geliştirmey... more Günümüzde devletler vatandaşların tercihlerine dayalı daha rasyonel kamu politikaları geliştirmeye ve daha iyi kamu hizmeti sunmaya yönelik bir baskı altındadırlar. Bu nedenle, son dönemde gerek gelişmiş gerekse gelişmekte olan ülkelerde gerçekleştirilen reformlar vatandaş-temelli kamu yönetimini inşa etmeyi hedeflemektedir. Kamu kurumu-vatandaş etkileşimini sağlamak vatandaş-temelli kamu yönetimini inşa etmenin önemli bir boyutunu oluşturmaktadır. Kamu kurumu-vatandaş etkileşimi, vatandaşların politika oluşturma ve hizmet sunma süreçlerine dâhil edilmesini ve kamu kurumları ile vatandaşlar arasındaki ilişkilerin geliştirilmesini gerektirmektedir. İnternet alanındaki son gelişmeleri yansıtan sosyal medya, bu ilişkinin geliştirilmesinde yeni fırsatlar sunma potansiyeline sahiptir. Çünkü, sosyal medyanın doğasında, ortak içerik üretimi ve iki yönlü iletişim vardır. Bununla birlikte, sosyal medyanın kamu kurumu-vatandaş etkileşimini destekleyip desteklemediğini analiz eden ampirik çalışmalara ihtiyaç duyulmaktadır. Bu bağlamda, bu çalışma bir ölçüm seti kullanarak, bir sosyal medya aracı olarak Facebook aracılığıyla Türkiye'deki belediyelerin vatandaşla etkileşim düzeylerini ölçmeyi ve belediyeleri bu açıdan tasnif etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Araştırmanın bulgularına göre, Türkiye'de Facebook'ta belediyelerin vatandaşla etkileşim düzeyi oldukça düşüktür. Bu bulgu, ilgili literatürdeki diğer çalışmaların bulguları ile uyumludur.
Kamu yönetiminin hukuka ve hakkaniyete uygun hareket etmesini sağlamak, katılımı teşvik etmek ve ... more Kamu yönetiminin hukuka ve hakkaniyete uygun hareket etmesini sağlamak, katılımı teşvik etmek ve devlet-vatandaş ilişkilerini iyileştirmek ombudsmanın temel görevleri arasındadır. Sosyal medya araçları bir ülkede ombudsmanın bu görevlerini başarıyla yerine getirebilmesine katkı sağlama potansiyeline sahiptir. Ancak, Türkiye'de ombudsman-sosyal medya ilişkisi ilgili literatürde analiz edilmiş bir konu değildir. Bu çalışma, Türkiye'de Twitter örneği bağlamında sosyal medya ve ombudsman arasındaki ilişkiye odaklanmaktadır. Bu bağlamda, çalışmanın amacı, içerik analizi yönteminden yararlanarak, Kamu Denetçiliği Kurumu'nun (KDK) Twitter'dan ne amaçla yararlandığını analiz etmek ve bu sosyal medya aracının Türkiye'de KDK'nın rolünü yerine getirmesine katkı sağlayıp sağlamadığını değerlendirmektir. Yapılan analizin bulgularına göre, Türkiye'de KDK, Twitter'dan vatandaşları kararlarına ve incelemelerine ilişkin bilgilendirme ve kurumu tanıtma amacıyla yararlanırken; katılımı teşvik etme ve vatandaşla iki yönlü iletişime geçme açısından Twitter'ı etkin bir şekilde kullanmamaktadır. KDK Twitter'ın sunduğu fırsatlardan tam anlamıyla yararlanmamaktadır.
Ombudsman and Social Media: An Empirical Analysis of the Twitter Use of Turkish Ombudsman Institution Abstract Ombudsmen essentially act to render public administration operate in line with law and principle of equity, encourage citizen participation, and improve citizen-state relations. Social media tools have potential to contribute ombudsman to fulfill these duties in a country. However, the relationship between ombudsman and social media in Turkey has not been analyzed in the relevant literature. This study focuses on the nature of this relationship within the context of Twitter case in Turkey. Using the method of content analysis, the aim of this study is to analyze for which purposes Turkish Ombudsman Institution uses Twitter, and evaluate whether this social media tool contributes Turkish Ombudsman Institution to fulfill its role or not. The findings of this study exhibit that Turkish Ombudsman Institution successfully uses Twitter for informing citizens on its decisions and inspection results as well as self-promotion. Nevertheless, it seems Twitter is not effectively employed by the Institution for encouraging citizen participation and interacting with citizens. As a conclusion, we have found that Turkish Ombudsman Institution has not completely benefited from the opportunities that Twitter offers for public institutions.
This article aims to analyse the extent to which metropolitan and provincial
municipalities in T... more This article aims to analyse the extent to which metropolitan and provincial
municipalities in Turkey take advantage of the opportunities offered by information and
communications technologies to strengthen democracy and to evaluate the factors affecting
the e-democracy adoption of municipalities in Turkey within the framework of spatial
data analysis. In this context, this study tries to contribute distinctively to the local
e-democracy literature by focusing on the investigation of whether there are any spatial
effects on e-democracy adoption of municipalities in Turkey. The findings of our analysis
show that while being the members of the same political party and geographical contiguity
do not have any impact, the variables of size, status, budget and Internet penetration
have impacts on the level of e-democracy adoption of municipalities in Turkey.
Günümüzde, ombudsman kurumu insan haklarını korumanın, demokrasiyi güçlendirmenin ve kamu yönetim... more Günümüzde, ombudsman kurumu insan haklarını korumanın, demokrasiyi güçlendirmenin ve kamu yönetiminin iyileştirilmesinin bir aracı olarak görülmektedir. Bununla birlikte, bir ülkede ombudsman kurumunun oluşturulması ondan beklenen faydaların kendiliğinden ortaya çıkacağı anlamına gelmemektedir. Bu kurumun başarılı olması için birtakım koşulların karşılanması gerekmektedir. Ombudsmanın medya tarafından güçlü bir şekilde desteklenmesi, bir ülkede ombudsmanın etkin bir şekilde faaliyet göstermesinin bir ön koşulu olarak kabul edilmektedir. Bu bağlamda, bu çalışma Türkiye’de ombudsmanın medya tarafından yeterince desteklenip desteklenmediğini analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu doğrultuda, bu çalışma Türkiye’de medyada ombudsmana dair çıkan haberlerin içerik analizini gerçekleştirerek, ampirik olarak ombudsman ve medya arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemekte ve Türkiye’de ombudsmanın etkin bir şekilde uygulanabilirliği tartışmalarına katkı sağlamaktadır.
The Use of Twitter by Mayors in Turkey: Tweets for Better Public Services? , 2013
This article aims to provide an overall picture of the use of Twitter as a significant social med... more This article aims to provide an overall picture of the use of Twitter as a significant social media tool by mayors in Turkey and to investigate, using content analysis and tweet categorization, whether Twitter is used by mayors in Turkey to offer better public services. Thus, this study focuses on the impact of Twitter in Turkey on transparent, participatory and citizen-oriented local public services. Our analysis has revealed that mayors in Turkey use Twitter especially to share information, send personal messages and share their location and activities. The use of Twitter for transparent, participatory and citizen-oriented public service delivery is not common among mayors. Twitter is adopted and used by mayors mostly for the purposes of self-promotion and political marketing in Turkey.
Political parties have not been indifferent to the opportunities offered by the internet-based te... more Political parties have not been indifferent to the opportunities offered by the internet-based technologies. Today, political parties use the social media tools to communicate, organize and mobilize. However, few studies focus on the use of social media by the political parties and these studies analyze the use of social media in election campaigns. Therefore, in the relevant literature, there is a need for empirical studies to analyze the use of social media for political communication by political parties during nonelection periods. In this context, this study, using a metrics set, aims to analyze the engagement level and engagement type of the political parties with public in Turkey on Facebook as a social media tool in a non-election period. The findings of our analysis show that the engagement level of the political parties with public on Facebook in Turkey is low. Moreover, political parties in Turkey fail to communicate with the public in a bidirectional way on Facebook.
Uploads
themselves to their audiences, collect feedback from citizens and use this feedback as input in the process of improving public services and policies. To achieve these goals, local governments need to reach out to the greatest number of people using a successful communication strategy. Post characteristics such as post type and category have an effect on the number of citizens reached by local governments and the
amount of feedback received from them (such as the number of reactions, comments and shares). Therefore, the basic research question of the present study is as follows: What type and content of posts would help local governments increase the level of interaction with their citizens? In this context, this chapter aims to analyze the relationship between the types and categories of Facebook posts sent by the metropolitan and provincial municipalities in the Marmara Region of Turkey and the level of citizen interaction. In this study, the methods of content analysis and the Kruskal-Wallis test are used. The results of our analysis reveal that there is a significant relationship between post type and post category and citizen interaction level.
Ombudsman and Social Media: An Empirical Analysis of the Twitter Use of Turkish Ombudsman Institution
Abstract
Ombudsmen essentially act to render public administration operate in line with law and principle of equity, encourage citizen participation, and improve citizen-state relations. Social media tools have potential to contribute ombudsman to fulfill these duties in a country. However, the relationship between ombudsman and social media in Turkey has not been analyzed in the relevant literature. This study focuses on the nature of this relationship within the context of Twitter case in Turkey. Using the method of content analysis, the aim of this study is to analyze for which purposes Turkish Ombudsman Institution uses Twitter, and evaluate whether this social media tool contributes Turkish Ombudsman Institution to fulfill its role or not. The findings of this study exhibit that Turkish Ombudsman Institution successfully uses Twitter for informing citizens on its decisions and inspection results as well as self-promotion. Nevertheless, it seems Twitter is not effectively employed by the Institution for encouraging citizen participation and interacting with citizens. As a conclusion, we have found that Turkish Ombudsman Institution has not completely benefited from the opportunities that Twitter offers for public institutions.
municipalities in Turkey take advantage of the opportunities offered by information and
communications technologies to strengthen democracy and to evaluate the factors affecting
the e-democracy adoption of municipalities in Turkey within the framework of spatial
data analysis. In this context, this study tries to contribute distinctively to the local
e-democracy literature by focusing on the investigation of whether there are any spatial
effects on e-democracy adoption of municipalities in Turkey. The findings of our analysis
show that while being the members of the same political party and geographical contiguity
do not have any impact, the variables of size, status, budget and Internet penetration
have impacts on the level of e-democracy adoption of municipalities in Turkey.
themselves to their audiences, collect feedback from citizens and use this feedback as input in the process of improving public services and policies. To achieve these goals, local governments need to reach out to the greatest number of people using a successful communication strategy. Post characteristics such as post type and category have an effect on the number of citizens reached by local governments and the
amount of feedback received from them (such as the number of reactions, comments and shares). Therefore, the basic research question of the present study is as follows: What type and content of posts would help local governments increase the level of interaction with their citizens? In this context, this chapter aims to analyze the relationship between the types and categories of Facebook posts sent by the metropolitan and provincial municipalities in the Marmara Region of Turkey and the level of citizen interaction. In this study, the methods of content analysis and the Kruskal-Wallis test are used. The results of our analysis reveal that there is a significant relationship between post type and post category and citizen interaction level.
Ombudsman and Social Media: An Empirical Analysis of the Twitter Use of Turkish Ombudsman Institution
Abstract
Ombudsmen essentially act to render public administration operate in line with law and principle of equity, encourage citizen participation, and improve citizen-state relations. Social media tools have potential to contribute ombudsman to fulfill these duties in a country. However, the relationship between ombudsman and social media in Turkey has not been analyzed in the relevant literature. This study focuses on the nature of this relationship within the context of Twitter case in Turkey. Using the method of content analysis, the aim of this study is to analyze for which purposes Turkish Ombudsman Institution uses Twitter, and evaluate whether this social media tool contributes Turkish Ombudsman Institution to fulfill its role or not. The findings of this study exhibit that Turkish Ombudsman Institution successfully uses Twitter for informing citizens on its decisions and inspection results as well as self-promotion. Nevertheless, it seems Twitter is not effectively employed by the Institution for encouraging citizen participation and interacting with citizens. As a conclusion, we have found that Turkish Ombudsman Institution has not completely benefited from the opportunities that Twitter offers for public institutions.
municipalities in Turkey take advantage of the opportunities offered by information and
communications technologies to strengthen democracy and to evaluate the factors affecting
the e-democracy adoption of municipalities in Turkey within the framework of spatial
data analysis. In this context, this study tries to contribute distinctively to the local
e-democracy literature by focusing on the investigation of whether there are any spatial
effects on e-democracy adoption of municipalities in Turkey. The findings of our analysis
show that while being the members of the same political party and geographical contiguity
do not have any impact, the variables of size, status, budget and Internet penetration
have impacts on the level of e-democracy adoption of municipalities in Turkey.
parties use the social media tools to communicate, organize and mobilize. However, few studies focus on the use of social media by
the political parties and these studies analyze the use of social media in election campaigns. Therefore, in the relevant literature,
there is a need for empirical studies to analyze the use of social media for political communication by political parties during nonelection
periods. In this context, this study, using a metrics set, aims to analyze the engagement level and engagement type of the
political parties with public in Turkey on Facebook as a social media tool in a non-election period. The findings of our analysis
show that the engagement level of the political parties with public on Facebook in Turkey is low. Moreover, political parties in
Turkey fail to communicate with the public in a bidirectional way on Facebook.