Evaluation of international communication strategies from cultural diplomacy perspective: A study on foreign instutitions running in Turkey

The globalization process and the development of technology have caused important changes in the world. Depending on this situation, foreign policy strategies of the countries have changed. The concept of diplomacy evolved to public diplomacy first and then to cultural diplomacy with the effect of the soft power concept. In cultural diplomacy activities, it is to identify the frequent use of international public relations for communication in order to convey the messages to the public accurately and effectively. With cultural diplomacy activities states aim to create public opinion and achieve positive image and good reputation. Thus, as a result of this, it is aimed to create an mutual understanding atmosphere and effective dialogue among societies. It has been determined that international public relations are frequently used in the communication process in order to convey the messages to the public accurately and effectively in cultural diplomatic activities. In this thesis, the links between public relations, nation branding, lobbying, media management and cultural diplomacy have been examined. In the research part of the thesis, the official current website of the foreign institutes running in Turkey and publicly available information on past events has been reached. Besides; the news about the activities carried out by the institutes through the websites of the newspapers in the new media were analyzed by the content analysis method. In accordance with the purpose of the study and research questions, frequency analysis and categorical analysis techniques were used in the study. By the findings obtained from institutions a variety of results related to the activities in Turkey have been reached.