A Study on the Rate of Satellite's Influence in Tehran's Population: A Sociological Approach to Social Aspects of Mass Media

Satellite is one of the most important means of communication in today's world. There are two basic standpoints regarding the use of satellite. One looks at the positive aspects of its application and the other concentrates on its negative effects. This paper intends to study the influence rate of the satellite TV in Tehran and tries to apply a sociological approach to explain it. The purpose of this study is a critical analysis of the performance of the national media, and that of the satellite. The method used is survey. The statistical population is the Tehrani citizens aged over 18, the sampling method is cluster and simple random, and the sample size is 400. Among the findings of this study is that approximately 60 percent of the residents have satellite. They have considered the satellite programs to be attractive, and expressed a low reliability for the internally broadcasted TV networks. The respondents, on the other hand, have stated that the national media programs are noble and propagate religious and national values. They believed that satellite programs play a role in the promotion of violence and immorality. Citizens are considered to possess an appropriate media literacy and well aware of the negative impact of satellite, but having no internal alternative to substitute it.