فصلنامه مطالعات فرهنگ - ارتباطات
پیاپی 64 (زمستان 1402)

Celebrities are one of the most important cultural features and social forces of our era. In a transnational-local context, they have imposed dynamics on our lives that is a part of our daily discourses. With the aim of typology and understanding the interactions between the celebrities and their audiences in everyday life, the current research analyzes the content of various text documents related to Iranian celebrities and their types of representations in the virtual space and their interactions with their audiences. The findings indicate influence management on the audience and themes such as originality, intellectualism, creating controversy and connection with political and economic power and strategies such as pride, haloizing for self, self-deprecation, changing roles, borrowing halo from accepting people and even entering the role of a social agent that is sometimes accompanied and sometimes not accompanied by the audience. In the identification process, we witnessed themes such as lifestyle, education, activism, and celebrity infatuation. Despite this audience, they usually identify with them in positive cases and for personal and social benefits. Seeking refuge in celebrities for reasons such as finding an identity, getting rid of everyday life, enjoying mental fantasies, gaining the way and customs of a privileged and luxurious life and becoming a celebrity and enjoying its social and economic benefits. Although the path to becoming a celebrity is smooth, there is a fierce competition to show one's originality and innovation to attract the audience, and therefore we see all kinds of celebrities borrowing from each other.

This article aims to investigate Iranian female celebrities and their discourse in cyberspace. The attempt of the present research is to analyze the Instagram page of Mahnaz Afshar, as an Iranian female celebrity, and in this way to achieve the cultural discourse of the Iranian female celebrity in the virtual space. By using the method of discourse analysis, the mentioned Padam Page has been investigated and the central signifiers and the hegemonic space governing it have been obtained. The results indicate that Paige's basic signifiers refer to being a people person, being emotional, loving people, nature and animals, being famous, being a feminist, a kind mother, and an overseas artist. After the analysis, the basic signs finally lead to the discourse that celebrities want to be a role model for the people and that their culture is superior and dominant over the people's culture. Meanwhile, there are obvious contradictions between the discourses obtained from Page and the existing facts.

In recent years, the press has witnessed a decline in its audience due to various factors, including cultural, social, political, and economic influences, as well as existing restrictions. This research aimed to investigate the reasons, processes, strategies, and consequences of this issue by employing the grounded theory method, which follows a systematic approach. The participants in this study were communication media experts and individuals with a minimum of 7 years of experience in the press field. Through purposeful sampling, a total of 29 people were selected and interviewed using a semi-structured interview. The data were analyzed using the three-step coding method of grounded theory, which includes open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. The findings revealed that the causal conditions influencing the distancing of the press can be categorized into three parts: socio-cultural factors (such as Iranian oral tradition, digitization of culture, minimalistic life, and institutional mistrust), political factors (including political restrictions and behavioral politicization), and economic factors (such as economic poverty, inflation, and high prices). The contextual conditions contributing to people's distance from the press are the political economy and virtualization. Additionally, the intervening conditions impacting people's distance from the press encompass content weakness and structural weakness. To address this issue, strategies such as content modernization, communication modernization, and structural modernization were identified. If these strategies are successfully implemented, the most significant consequence for the press would be a reduction in people's distance from it, leading to a decrease in the downward trend of the press audience.

Commercial and managerial perspectives consider transmedia as a response to changing market conditions that have disrupted traditional business models and value creation methods. It marks the beginning of new approaches where audience satisfaction takes precedence. On the other hand, transmedia storytelling can be regarded as a business model for media producers have closely examined the current state of converging markets and made it their goal. Within the recent decade, with the advent of digital media and discussions surrounding media convergence, the need for research in the field of transmedia has been more pronounced than ever before. In this study, we seek to explore the concept within Iranian media productions by conducting a theoretical synthesis of convergence and transmedia storytelling and by examining the challenges related to its implementation. This analysis aids media producers and stakeholders in crafting content resonates with the preferences and requirements of their audience. The research methodology involves qualitative research and data collection through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with experts in the field of new media. The findings are categorized into eight main themes and seven sub-themes through content analysis. Based on the results, the challenges of establishing and expanding transmedia storytelling in Iranian media productions include monopoly, failure to produce content tailored to audience preferences, the level of media convergence and transmedia storytelling in Iran, inadequate and inefficient infrastructure, legal constraints, regulatory body diversity, lack of a participatory culture, absence of intellectual and moral property laws, and copyright issues, as well as neglect of the private sector.

"Superheroes" are one of the most important products of popular culture, which with unique costumes and powers, have been spread since the second quarter of the 20th century in comic strips and comic books, and in the last twenty years, they have been one of the dominant filmmaking trends in Hollywood. Regardless of critical views, these films have affected the economic cycle of cinema, and have become a dominant discourse and a common language, so this article is trying to provide a coherent interpretation of them. In this study, based on the ideas of Walter Benjamin, German theorist related to the Frankfurt School, about the disenchantment of myth in modern culture, the anxieties caused by urbanization in superhero movies are focused on, and the psychological, social and political crises after the attack to New York on September 11, 2001, has been examined as one of the most important reasons for the prosperity of this type of cinema. The study method is based on library data, and describing and analyzing the visual and thematic features of the movies adapted from the more well-known superhero characters, including Superman and Batman (from DC) and Spider-Man (from Marvel), separately. In the conclusion of this study, the anxieties caused by the dominance of technology over nature, crime and terrorism, anarchism, the culture industry and human distortion in capitalist society, aliens and the fear of death and the destruction of humanity, is considered as the most important factors in the demythology of superheroes in today's cinema.

Cultural diplomacy is a form of public diplomacy and soft power. Each country employs various methods and formats to establish cultural diplomacy. One approach to cultural diplomacy is selecting and activating cultural attaches and counsellors in the host country. A cultural attache is a diplomat responsible for promoting and disseminating their country's culture in the host country, in line with the national interests of their own country. The selection of cultural attaches may be based on various patterns and criteria. The main focus of this current research is the selection pattern of cultural attaches of the Islamic Republic of Iran based on the concerns and expectations of international cultural governance officials in the Islamic Republic of Iran, with an emphasis on cultural diplomacy in England. Therefore, the aim of this research is to find a comprehensive and common criterion for the competency of cultural attache of the Islamic Republic of Iran abroad, which serves Islamic and national interests for our country. This research was conducted using qualitative methods and in-depth interviews with cultural officials in the international arena. The statements of heads of authorities, cultural officials, and the directives of Imam Khomeini and the Supreme Leader regarding foreign relations and international affairs are the sources of this article. The research findings are categorized into 214 components in 23 dimensions and 6 general domains (cognitive, planning/strategic,  communicative/interactive,  stylistic/methodological, managerial/executive, and advisory/guidance). The most important result of this research is the design of a competency model for cultural attache based on the expectations of the cultural governance system in 6 domains.

The pupouse of study is to identify the problems of holding “the Book of the Year award” in order to improve policies, procedure, improve the judging process and make it more effective in the publishing community. The research is qualitative in terms of approach and case study in terms of execution method. The studied community is the writings related to the Book of the Year award, university professors, experts and beneficiaries involved in the organization and performance of the festival, and critics and experts in the field of the book of the year, where the expert sampling technique was used to select the sample. Writing review, interview and focus group were used to collect data. Qualitative data analysis has been done in two stages; the first round of coding and the second round of pattern finding. In the first round of coding, we tried to give each piece of data a label (or the same code); in the second round, models were extracted from these codes. To advance the coding process, various tools have been used, including performing the process with pencil and paper to the use of MaxQDA (version 11) computer programs. The results show that the issues and problems of the yearbook can be categorized in the areas of policy and planning, executive processes, and referees. The overlapping of the Book of the Year award with other awards and the lack of clarity about its position compared to other awards has caused the Book of the Year to decline in prestige. The excessive dependence of the award on the government body, both in terms of expenses and in terms of policy, the selection of the scientific secretary, referee, etc. has caused us to witness the interference of cultural officials in the votes and opinions of the judges, as well as the introduction of the chosen ones, in limited periods. Trust in festivals and awards is the most important event that can be effective in their growth and influence, and in addition to the favor of the people and those in charge of the awards, it will be effective in promoting the publishing industry, and the officials of the Book of the Year institution should have more appropriate planning and investment in this regard.

The present research is a comparative study on journalism curriculum at undergraduate level between Iran and Turkey. Two countries that have more similarities in terms of historical developments as well as cultural, social and demographic commonalities in the geography of the Middle East and among the Islamic nations. From this point of view, with the use of qualitative research strategy and thematic analysis technique, the content of curricula text of the BA degree in Journalism at Allameh Tabataba’i University and Istanbul University selected using purposeful judgmental sampling method. Research findings show that the programme of journalism course of study from these two universities are generally the same, but in some aspects there are also differences. Among other things, there are similarities in the dimensions of goals, missions, and unified system in these two universities. At the same time, issues such as the quantity and subject of course units, field prospects, level of skills and knowledge, and job opportunities, there are more differentiation.