"Media and Local Governments Panel" was organised in Düzce in cooperation with the Presidency's Directorate of Communications, the International Media Information Association (UMED) and the municipality.
Journalist authors Zafer Şahin, Ersin Çelik, Esra Elönü and Edip Üzen attended the panel at Prof. Dr. Erol Güngör Cultural Centre as speakers.
Ersin Çelik stated that local governments have updated themselves concurrently with the emergence of social media since 2007.
Asserting that social media has become indispensable in daily life as of 2007, Çelik remarked, "Local relations between the media and municipalities have become more intertwined." Previously, municipalities needed to promote their work on the regional pages of newspapers, but the internet has made this even easier. Social media has also given rise to the concept of performance municipalism. Therefore, everyone is actually on display and all municipalities are visible there. This resulted in a race and a competition."
Edip Üzen, on the other hand, pointed out that municipalities should serve all segments of society, regardless of their ideologies, and that municipalism is required in all fields from birth to death.
Zafer Şahin noted that we live in the era of social media, and stated that the recent conflicts in Palestine have been misrepresented by the Western media through the dissemination of disinformation via social media.
Esra Elönü stated that they witnessed "psychological operations" that were initiated locally and disseminated nationally via social media, and she emphasised that the Presidency's Directorate of Communication exerts crucial efforts to combat disinformation.
The panel, attended by Governor of Düzce Selçuk Aslan, Deputy Mayor Oya Kocaman, directors of institutions, and students, will conclude today.