AN EXAMPLE OF SOFT POWER IN PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: AN ANALYSIS OF NEWS ABOUT ALPER GEZERAVCI IN THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Abstract
The study examines the contribution of the process of sending Türkiye’s first astronaut, Alper Gezeravcı, into space to the country’s soft power strategies within the context of public diplomacy. The aim of the research is to analyse how this space mission has enhanced Türkiye’s international visibility, to what extent it has served its foreign policy objectives, and whether it has contributed to the country’s international image. The study is structured within the framework of the concepts of digital public diplomacy and soft power. As the research method, Van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis model has been adopted. In this context, fourteen news articles about Alper Gezeravcı published in international digital media between January 17 and February 12, 2024, were examined. The analysis is based on both macrostructure (thematic-schematic organization) and microstructure (discourse language, rhetoric, and word choice) levels. The study reveals how these news texts contribute to Türkiye’s soft power construction and through which linguistic strategies international perceptions are shaped. The findings indicate that Türkiye, through Alper Gezeravcı’s space mission, has made its capacity in the fields of science, technology, and international cooperation more visible, thereby positively influencing its international image. Moreover, it is emphasized that, alongside traditional tools of public diplomacy, digital media and space achievements have also been transformed into strategic communication instruments.
Keywords
Public Diplomacy, Digital Diplomacy, Soft Power, Alper Gezeravcı, Turkish Space Agency
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