DOI: 10.70701/makusbd.1909275 ISSN: 3023-5359

Digital Public Relations Strategies of Sports Federations: An Analysis of Websites in Terms of Accessibility and User Experience

Fikret Kayhalak, Tekmil Sezen Soyal, Bilgehan Pepe
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This study aims to examine the digital governance capacities and digital public relations practices of sports federations operating in Türkiye in terms of accessibility, usability, and interactivity. The study was designed within a quantitative and descriptive–relational research framework. In this context, the official websites of 63 active sports federations were systematically evaluated through content analysis using binary coding based on 26 digital governance indicators. The data were analyzed using the R programming language through prevalence analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) based on tetrachoric correlations, hierarchical clustering analysis, and a Generalized Linear Model (GLM). The findings indicate that federations demonstrate relatively high capacity in basic informational functions such as providing institutional information and sharing news. However, they remain limited in strategic areas such as accessibility (1.6%), mobile applications (9.5%), and interactivity (17.5%). The clustering analysis revealed three distinct digital maturity typologies, while the regression results showed that neither Olympic status nor sport type had a statistically significant effect on digital capacity (p > .05). Overall, the results suggest that sports federations primarily use digital platforms as one-way information dissemination tools rather than as channels for two-way communication, indicating that digital transformation has not yet been institutionalized at a strategic level.

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