The role of museums within digital communication process

Telecommunications and communications as well as information flow have developed with the widespread usage of the internet. Furthermore, the digital age turned prevalent within our lives in countless aspects. Thus, this paper aims to enquire into the digitization process of intercommucation as to museology, by which a large number of various digitization forms are examined, several of which are defined as; projectors with digital presentation features, digital archives, interactive smartscreens, kiosks, vision-effect applications, simulators, QR codes, products of virtual reality as well as augmented reality experience. Moreover, this paper runs its authentic research benefiting from the metadata so far gathered as well as self-performed field study due to the lack of informative resources for the general take from the public on its demands as to the digital services provided by museums as well as museums' web-based accessibility. By following a method as such, the intended is contribute to the field literature of museology. In the course of developing this study paper, an extensive identificatory research has been conducted on the usage of social media channels and web-based resources examining over 603 museological collectives in Turkey, as well as a vast review on museums' approach to web-based resources as well as social media communications. Furthermore, these said collectives have been classified with regard to their venues, infrastructures, collection categories, functionalities, and their availability for visits. Later, the information collected from these processes vi have been used in order to gather metadata by cross tabulation and graphic display. This paper also presents the field study in order to bring to light the demands of the public as well as the amount of digital platform usage as to museum communication. Additionally, the choices of digital and technological features have been studied and evaluated. The paper suggests that visitors prefer to acquaint themselves with the cultural knowledge by experience and learn through various ways of experiencing it by means of unconventional methods in this postmodern era, while demanding to be provided these opportunities by museums. Thus, it has been concluded that museums are expected to fulfil the contemporary digital requirements of today as well as to equip themselves actively with modern media channels in order to maintain the interests of visitors. Key Words: Digitalization, Social Media, Museum Communication, Interactive Museums, Virtual Museums, Turkey, Field Study, Metadata vii