Quantitive Content Analysis Of Doctoral Dissertation Written In The Field Of Public Relations In Terms Of Contribution To The Field

Abstract

Public relations activities are an important management element in both institutions and organizations and governments. Governments and institutions must consider to their public relations activities to maintain a positive reputation among their target audiences. The aim of this study is to analyze the contribution of doctorate theses on public relations in universities established in Turkey. Content analysis technique is used in the analysis of the data in the study. The study is limited to the theses made in the field of public relations between the years 2018-2022. Theses published between 2008 and 2017 have been previously analyzed by other academics. However, theses between the years 2018-2022 are not analyzed. The study will contribute to the field in this respect. While the universe of the study is the doctorate theses written in the field of public relations, the sample is the doctorate theses written in the field of public relations between the years 2018-2022. The study is carried out in December 2022 by analyzing the theses in the YOK (Turkish High Education Board) thesis center online. In the study, 68 theses written in the mentioned period are analyzed. At the end of the study, the following information are obtained. The gender distribution of the doctorate theses writers is close to each other. Almost all these are written in Turkish. All these except one thesis have access permission. These are most written in 2022. Looking at the last five years, it has been seen that at least doctorate theses are written in 2019. It is thought that the curfews enacted during the pandemic period in 2019 caused this. Doctorate theses are published by institutes in 19 universities. One-fifth of the theses of 19 universities are published by Marmara University. Marmara University is followed by Istanbul University and Ege University, respectively. Most theses are published by Social Sciences Institutes, followed by Graduate Education Institute, Graduate Programs Institute and Educational Sciences Institute, respectively. When examined the theses categories, corporate public relations activities, public diplomacy, marketing public relations, internal public relations and public relations activities applied in digital environments come in the first four ranks. Considering the categories of theses, the importance of public diplomacy in recent years has been seen as positive in terms of internationalization in public relations. In addition, it has been seen that writing a few theses in the field of artificial intelligence and data mining has left the classical topics and the theses topics follow the agenda.