The Obstacles to Religious Education of Fourth Generation of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and Media Solutions to Confront them with Emphasis on the Supreme Leader's Statements

The religious education of Iranian teenagers as the fourth generation of the Islamic Revolution is so vital that the Supreme Leader dedicated significant parts of the strategic statement on "The Second Phase of Islamic Revolution" to this section of the society as those who build the future. Considering the undeniable role of the media in forming beliefs and values of the audience in the communication age, IRIB as the national media has to be aware of the audience’s religious needs (especially teenagerschr('39')) and challenges of their religious education. The present research aimed at studying the obstacles to religious education of teenagers with an emphasis on the Supreme Leaderchr('39')s statements and presenting media solutions to confront them. This is a qualitative research based on the grounded theory method using interviews with experts who were chosen by theoretical purposive sampling. The interviews were transcribed and the key concepts and categories were identified. According to the findings, the main challenges of the religious education of teenagers are: weak religious beliefs in families and weak family interrelations, certain age-related issues, issues related to schools, peer groups and society, media issues and challenges, inconsistencies among families and schools in religious issues, the financial and cultural poverty in families, different kinds of addiction and individual and social harms in families. The results revealed that media can apply indirect methods to convey effective educative messages and provide appropriate behavioral patterns aiming at enhancing familieschr('39') interrelations (especially between parents and children) and reinforcing religious beliefs among the audience.