THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ENVIRONMENTS IN DIPLOMACY COMMUNICATION: THE EXAMPLE OF WEIBO SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM

Nowadays, social media environments are no longer just for personal use. States are also showing their presence on this medium and they are sharing, through social media, their national discourse with the world; they are even announcing their decisions and sanctions via social media. Popular social media environments that are used on an international scale like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have became a tool in diplomacy communication. This study focused on the place of Weibo, a regional social media environment that belongs to China where social media is prohibited, and that is only used through the Chinese identity or phones that are registered in China, in dimplomacy communication. Using the content analysis method, the countries that are present on Weibo will be identified respectively and they will be classified according to geographical regions. Then the 5 countries that have the highest number of followers will be listed and they will be determined based on the type of content they shared on video, photo, text). Giving a place to the interactions on their last posts, the situations of these countries will be assessed. When it comes to interaction, Israel, the country with the highest number of followers, is prooved to be in the first place