Civil Society Organizations in Socio-Cultural Building of Identity in Social Networks: Northern Cyprus Alewite Associations

With digitalization, social media is one of the tools that both individuals and institutions have been able to cope continuously in almost every aspect of life. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are important social platforms for the transmission of requests from the public to local and general administration. NGOs, which are guaranteed to serve local and general government under a strong phenomenon of democracy, continue to be indispensable actors of society with their voluntary services. NGOs, on the other hand, play an important role in the fact that people in different cultures, beliefs and opinions who are part of society can make their voices heard and be visible in society. In increasing these visibilities, social media is an indispensable communication tool for NGOs, just like individuals and other institutions. In this study, it is thought that social media plays an important role in the context of the construction of socio-cultural identity, as well as the media where they announce their activities for NGOs. Especially culturally and religiously, NGOs have the opportunity to increase their visibility in society. At this point, the social media posts of the KKTC Alevi Cultural Center Association and Pir Sultan Abdal Cultural Association NGOs representing Alevis, which are part of socio-cultural society, were selected with sample technique for official Facebook pages and an annual [July 1, 2019-June 30, 2020] content analysis was carried out for the sharing of these associations on their official Facebook pages. From here, it has been determined that through these shares, the associations contribute to the formation of socio-cultural identity through social media usage practices. In northern Cyprus, the inclusion of limited studies on NGOs is culturally and religiously important for representing a certain segment of society, and this study on Alevi associations is important to contribute to the literature.