COMMUNICATING ART EDUCATION: A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF TURKISH DRAMA SCHOOLS ’ONLINE COMMUNICATION

Abstract

The history of Turkish theater reflects many aspects of Turkish modernization. Since the Tanzimat
Reform Era in the 1830’s, a shift from traditional to Westernized way of writing, acting and staging
together with its social and cultural environment has been encouraged by the Empire. This
modernist approach continued in the Republic and it gained a momentum in the 1920’s. However, it
was only in the 1940’s when the first Conservatory teaching modern drama in academy was
founded. Until then, theater education had not been institutionalized in a Western way; rather, the
knowledge of this field of art used to be transmitted through master-apprentice relationships within
long-established independent companies. After the launch of the first Conservatory in Ankara, some
others in Istanbul, İzmir and Eskişehir, many Turkish actors have been trained for decades at such
modern drama schools formed by prestigious state universities. The advent of foundation
universities in the 1990’s challenged a relatively stable student market and more and more
Conservatories-or theater schools in Fine Arts Faculties- have started to attain a place in the market.
As of 2021, there are 15 drama schools in 2 state and 13 foundations in foundation universities in
Istanbul. This proliferation of Conservatories led to the necessity of communicating with
prospective students, stakeholders and art community in order to distinguish their strengths, how
they differ from others, and their unique promises. This study focuses on the way these schools
communicate online through their official websites. A discourse analysis is used to understand their
approach, worldview, values and communication styles. It shows that educational goals are
descripted through an idealized theater person with multi-skills, rhetorical structure is mainly based
on logos and ethos elements; and opposite concepts are used in order to emphasize their
differentiation points.