IN-PERSON Barcelona. Section B
Abstract
Various actors, including local administrative authorities, employ different communicative tactics and tools to trigger positive behaviors of individuals and groups in regards with the environment. From transforming their consumption patterns to introducing novel ways of transportation or encouraging them to pursue eco-friendly activities, local authorities are communicating with their publics to achieve sustainable living. In this study, we investigate such communicative practices from a Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) perspective and reveal the outcomes from local authorities’ attempts to trigger participation for social change in relation to United Nations’ ecology-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We focus on the four metropolitan cities in Turkey, namely Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, and Bursa, inhabiting a considerable portion of the country’s population. We analyze the communication flow on the online social spaces of these provinces in terms of the content related with the United Nations’ ecology-related SDGs. Methodological approach of this research relies on the content analysis of the abovementioned metropolitan municipalities’ sharings from their official social media accounts. We retrieve and analyze a selected sample of posts from the municipalities’ accounts, as well as the public’s response to these posts, covering the whole threads related to the issues on ecology and sustainable lifestyles. Thus, we present the whole picture of the communicative tactics to better understand how the municipalities communicate their messages and facilitate the participation of local citizens based on their efforts to mainstream sustainable living. Findings from this study will contribute to the literature on SBCC, illustrating how local administrations in different parts of the continent could learn from each other’s efforts with a particular focus on encouraging eco-friendly social and behavior change of the publics through participation.
Burak Dogu is a Professor of Communication and Director of the EKOKENT Research and Application Center at Izmir University of Economics. He formerly served as Head of the Department of New Media and Communication and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Communication. His work appears in journals such as Environmental Communication, Journalism, International Journal of Communication, and Democratization, focusing on environmental communication, social movements, and networking.
Altug Akin, associate professor at Izmir University of Economics, focuses on communication’s role in social change. He earned his Ph.D. in audio-visual communication from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and completed journalism studies at Stockholm University. A visiting scholar at UPENN’s Annenberg School for Communication, he worked for BBC World Service Turkish Section and led UNICEF Turkey’s Communication for Development and Social Change unit. Affiliated with Izmir University’s Department of New Media and Communication, he supports WHO Euro as an expert in Risk Communication, Community Engagement, and Infodemic Management. Dr. Akin also translates from Spanish and English to Turkish.
Sevda Kaya Kitinur, an Ankara University graduate in Sinology and Radio, Television, and Cinema, won a Huayu Enrichment Scholarship for Mandarin studies in Taiwan. She obtained her master’s from Ege University with a thesis on “Collective Memory in Post-Cultural Revolution Chinese Cinema.” With a TESOL certificate, she taught English before becoming a research assistant at Izmir University of Economics in 2021. Currently pursuing a PhD at Ege University, her interests include visual studies, collective memory, cultural studies, Chinese cinema, transmedia, and fan studies.
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Monday 15th July, 2024