فصلنامه پژوهش های ارتباطی
پیاپی 84 (زمستان 1394)

Environmental Communications is a research and applied branch of study within the broader field of Communications. Environmental communications deals with the manner of producing, distributing, receiving, understanding and using environment-related messages as well as the way society interact with it. Thus, employing media in order to public awareness on environment and its related challenges, promoting and encouraging methods of preserving and protecting environment and media management-related issues are among the most important research areas within the branch of environmental communications. This article provides a definition for environmental communications and reviews its related literature, and then examines the environmental role of our media. Deep interview is used for collecting experts’ views and solutions in this regard. Lack of exclusive media for the field of environment, lack of macro and systematic look among media actors, focus on temporary programs and ignoring strategic programming are among the issues afflicting media in playing their role with regard to environment. Employing media discourse, reinforcing environmental journalism, media adoption of a supportive approach towards environmental activists as well as launching environmental communications group in Iran Environmental Protection Organization are a number of solutions introduced in the article.

The present paper aims to introduce a model defining the role of television in promoting championship. This qualitative study has been carried out based on grounded theory, and the data were collected through documentary approach as well as interview with 14 experts on media and sport. Following coding process, a grounded model based on Strauss and Corbin (1994) systematic model was designed and thereof, unbalanced and unpleasant factor affecting championship competitions was identified as the key factor, and other factors were organized based on the paradigm model. These factors are as follows: causal conditions, ground and influential conditions, action-reaction strategies and consequences. The most significant factors include focus on position and clinching medal, focusing on a few types of sports and certain ages, weak policies and criteria for broadcasting, a force for comparing with unique events, considering national proud, number and capacity of TV channels which brings about unbalanced and unfair coverage of games and limited chance of introducing individuals and hence sparking their popularity.

Using focus group method, the present research examines the way the soap opera “Pahlavi Hat” is interpreted and decoded by women. First, five groups of women were chosen purposively to conduct focus group discussion.Each group consisted of people with different cultural background. The findings indicate that there are differences in the audience’s reading of the soap opera, and they are not passive against series’ messages. Depending on their characteristics and lifestyle, women have access to various sources of information and discourses and hence, receive TV messages accordingly and differently. Some participants read the series according to traditional discourse while others, based on their own experiences, have received components messages related to both traditionalism and modernism.

Social media are a network of active users in the context of social Web, who have multi-layer and complicated interaction with each other through producing, sharing, consuming and retaining various kinds of digital material. Increasing growth of social media and their cultural and social impacts has made necessary the comparative study of and learning about these different types of media. This survey-based research, bearing a sample of 360 students between 18 and 29 years of age from Tehran University, aims to conceptualize such media and provide a thorough typology of both Iran-based and foreign-based social media. Findings indicate that foreign-based social media within five main categories, including mobile-based social media, classic social media, abandoned social media, video-based communication services as well as content sharing services, and domestic social media in three main types, i.e. classic media, blogs and file-sharing and file-downloading services are identifiable. Comparing domestic-based and foreign-based social media are indicative of more diversity in foreign media and lack of development in domestic mobile-based social media. In this research, evidence for three main trends was discovered, i.e. of mobile-ization of social media, gradual success of certain internal social media as well as an increasing stream of media migration.

Communicative skills are among important tools in journalism profession, having a positive effect on managing social communication. According to various studies, job stress is a grave issue in journalists’ work place, threatening individuals’ health and impacting their productivity and performance. Therefore, it is important to examine the relationship between communicative skills and work-related stress among journalists, which is the main objective of the present study. Journalists working in Tehran press Club form the population in this research; they were studied through a survey based on Queendom communication skills questionnaire as well as H.S.A Work-related Stress Questionnaire. Findings show that there is a negative correlation between the two variables, i.e. the more the general communications skills of the journalists, the less their work-related stress, and vice versa.

The present article aims to examine the role of media in training entrepreneurship skills for young people. A descriptive methodology was carried out based on a survey. The population consists of all staff working in IRIB Lorestan Center as well as successful entrepreneurs in the province, making up of a total of 482 individuals of which 210 individuals were chosen through Stratified Random Sampling as sample of the research based on Morgan Table. A research-made questionnaire with the title “Role of Media in Training Entrepreneurship Skills” was used in the study, and to test the research hypotheses descriptive and inferential statistics was employed. The research findings confirms that media (radio and TV) play a positive and significant role in educating people on entrepreneurship skills, so far so that one could conclude that mass media, radio television in particular, play the primary role in such education.

The present article aims to study the role of Persian language satellite TV channels in the political culture of youths residing in Tehran. This is a survey-based research carried out in the current year with 417 samples from Districts 1 to 5. The findings indicate that there is a reverse correlation between watching Persian language satellite TV channels and youth's political culture; in other words, those young people who watch Persian language satellite TV channels have a passive political culture. Furthermore, as the level of exposure increases, the youth's political trust (in society institutions) decreases. Opening review and criticizing of Legislative assembly,Judiciary and Executive and other state institutions performance in the IRIB to engage people to interaction with officials is one of the steps that can be the way to confronting with Persian-language satellite network news programs.