Digital Public Relations Practices in Ecological Municipalism: Lahti Municipality Sample

Abstract

In this study, the use of Twitter for public relations purposes of the Lahti municipality was analysed. The study aims to reveal the public relations focus of the ecological municipality approach. In this context, Tweets shared on the Twitter account of the municipality between November 1 and November 30, 2021, were analysed by discourse and content analysis method in the 2020.2.2 version of the Maxqda program. The findings obtained from the analysis are: In the process that Lahti was elected as an ecological municipality, it shared the most on municipal services and ecological city. The main topics shared by the municipality were identified as Covid-19, Lahti activism, ecological city, and municipal services. The main headings of the macro discourse of this process, which covers municipal services; Lahti City is urban transportation, openings, tender announcements, meetings, cooperation, and events. When these discourse titles are analysed at the micro-level, it is seen that a simple, active, and everyday language is used. When the shares are examined in rhetoric, reference representation is quite intense in persuasiveness. As a result; It is seen that the municipality of Lahti fulfills the principles of corporate citizenship on Twitter, which it uses for recognition and promotion purposes.