Abstract
By virtue of social media, the proximity and remoteness also lost their meanings in the area of communication to a large extent. In every type of relationship in daily life, the role played by the social media is gradually multiplied. In this study, it is aimed to reveal to what extent and with what kind of studies the social media phenomenon has been discussed scientifically. As per the literature review conducted on the basis of the databases of the National Thesis Center of the Council of Higher Education of Turkey (YÖK), it was discerned that the starting year of the doctoral dissertations which were prepared in Turkey on the topic of social media was 2011 and there were a total of 148 doctoral dissertations on this topic until January 2020, however, the permission to access was granted only to 135 out of all dissertations. In Turkey, upon the review of universities where doctoral dissertations were composed on the topic of social media, it was found that social media was studied in 45 universities and, of these universities, 89.7% (38) were public universities whilst 10.3% (7) were foundation universities. The review of research methods which were used in doctoral dissertations on the topic of social media indicated that quantitative research methods were used in 50.4% of the dissertations, qualitative research methods were used in 33.3% of the dissertations and mixed-type research methods (both quantitative and qualitative) were used in 16.3% of the dissertations. As per the exploration of research techniques which were utilized, studies in which surveys and scales were used together came at the top with 42.2% of the dissertations. The content analysis comes second with 14.8% and is followed by the interview technique ranking third with 5.9%. It can be further stated that scientific disciplines interested in this topic also get diversified as the social media gradually gains more ground in the life of individual and society, and hence, in the same direction, there is also an increase in the number of research methods and techniques.