Abstract:

Today's changing actors, advancing technologies and transforming the dynamics have enhanced the significance of public diplomacy approaches on behalf of countries. Public diplomacy can be defined as the efforts of governmental and non-governmental actors in the interest of their countries in order to adapt to the changing structure of international relations. There are many application areas in the public diplomacy approach and mainly culture is the most vital interaction tool in this diplomacy process. Although there are many representatives in cultural diplomacy, especially in current times, artificial intelligence technology also contributes to the recognition of awareness and recognition of countries. Recently, virtual phenomenas, which are popular unreal characters among the non-governmental actors of countries, have reached a significant number of adherents and have turned into crucial cultural ambassadors and promotional faces for their countries. This study was prepared to contribute to the cultural diplomacy culture through the analysis of Imma Gram’s Instagram account, which is one of the popular virtual phenomena of Japan. Purposeful sampling was applied to assess the related data. So as to add up depth to the study, prominent user comments and the content of posts from various categories were also analysed. Clothing, brand ambassador, gastronomy, traditional art, place branding, anime and manga culture are among the noticeable posts. In addition, it was also acquired that Imma Gram provided limited feedback to user comments.

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