The Content Analysis of “HONAR-E MEMARI”, “MEMAR” and “Architecture & Construction” according to the Agenda-Setting Theory (1998-2018)

The purpose of this study was to analyze the content of three titles of Iranian specialized architecture journals during their twenty years of activity. No report has yet been published on the content analysis of specialized architectural journals. The importance of this research is determined by understanding the role of the media in orienting the minds of architectural professionals. The research method of this research is content analysis by first hand references (original version of journals) and article counting based on a researcher-made checklist. Finally, data analysis is done using SPSS software. The findings show that the three magazines "Architect", "Art of Architecture" and "Architecture and Building" as the most reliable specialized journals of Iranian architecture in the last twenty years have published a total of 221 journals from 1998 to the end of 1977 with 4965 articles. The research showed that topics such as "Project introduction in Iran" (19.39% of total articles), "History and theoretical foundations" (19.23% of total articles), "Architectural events news" (12.93% of total articles) and Project introduction in the West (10.81% of total articles) accounted for the most. More than 62.36% of the variance is in articles published on these four topics. Also prominent (10%) is the theme "Project introduction in Iran". Investigating the distribution of articles in this study shows that specialized architectural journals have played an important role in the architects' biases in using the media as the context for introducing their construction works and directing their minds toward western architecture. In conclusion, it is suggested to check the consistency between the published articles and the concerns of the professional community of architects.