The Media Weapons Utilized by the United States of America in its Soft War against the Islamic Republic of Iran

Today, as the world gets smaller and more complicated due to the increasing growth of the mass communication tools, media are utilized as essential tools to enforce the policies of the hegemonic powers and a global competition has been created in the field of media combat. Today, media are regarded as the gate through which culture is transmitted to people. The capability of media to influence the culture of the target audience has made the major powers exploit the various media tools in a soft manner in order to attract the hearts and minds of the target nations and consequently change their behavior. Providing a definition for culture on the basis of various theories, this article attempts to examine the role of media in soft war. Following this approach, the functions of the U.S. media weapons utilized in its soft war against the Islamic Republic of Iran are studied here. The case study reported here is based on Farsi 1, Hollywood and Radio Farda channels.