Abstract:

The e-government structure, which is one of the most discussed issues around the world today, is an area where investments are made in terms of both establishing trust and increasing participation, today. In this frame, e-participation studies that aligned to public participation comes to forefront, and governments aim to develop a management approach that effective and sustainable within the public e-participation. Thus, governments fund the digital platforms, mobile applications, and e-consultation services for understand publics’ expectations and necessities and initivate these process to activate citizens in decision processes as a stakeholder. In this scope, this paper presents The Turkish Republic of Presidency Communicate Centre [CİMER] which is a e-consultation service as a public relations facility as the case study in scope of e-participation. For understanding the CİMER structure and role in the public institute- citizen communication processes, in first phase CİMER Public Relations Department is interviewed. In second phase, participants who applied CİMER before from İstanbul and Ankara recruited for understanding their CİMER perception and experience. Within the context, the role of CİMER on participants’ communication process and the journey that activates citizens as active publics are examined within the framework of Situational Theory of Publics. It has been understood that applications have been made regarding the situations under the headings of avoiding disinformation, urban regulations and common society problems. It has been understood that CİMER is the most reliable and accessible source of information for all participants in defining a situation, and a communication channel preferred by citizens to put pressure on public institutions at the point of solving problems. But on the other hand, it is observed that citizens believe that the awareness of CİMER role should be increased in society to strength the public power in decision process.

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