The Role of the Media in Crisis With an Emphasis on the July 8th, 1999 Riots

The Islamic Revolution has challenged the interests of global powers due to its anti-hegemonic nature; hence, it has come under their massive military, security, cultural and psychological attacks. For instance, they have attempted to create artificial crises and civil turmoil in some cities during the last few years. Therefore, since creation of crisis and turmoil in light of ethnic, religious, political and factional differences is high in the enemy’s agenda, it is of great importance to see how to confront this plot. Under a crisis situation, it is of great importance for managers to know how to inform, psychologically influence, persuade, guide anddirect the stakeholders, in short how to influence the public opinion in order to generate positive or negative consequences, utilizing their management skills and the media. In fact, the essential question to be raised in this regard is: What role do the media, in visual, auditory or printed forms, play in creating security and managing urban crises? The present case study is focused on the role the media, particularly the press and the satellites, played in aggravating the July 8th, 1999 riots in Iran.