Television and Religious Identity (Case Study: Students of Mazandaran University)

One of the features of society and even the human nature is to seek safety and comfort in religion. Fear of death and sufferings, make humans in need of faith in God. As one of the most important social institutions in formulating meaning of life, religion has always had a special place. It is a social as well as divine phenomenon, and as it is mentioned in the holy books, it is sent to save humanity from life's difficulties and tragedies. According to the socio-cultural structure of Iranian society, religious identity has a prominent place among other forms of identities (national, ethnic, gender, etc.). With the development of communication technologies and the emergence of mass media such as newspapers, television and cinema, different aspects of our social activities are affected by these phenomenon. Indeed, it is an agreed-upon fact that in the cotemporary world, the formation of our personality and social identity has been assigned to mass media. In this regard, television has undoubtedly a prominent position. According to Giddens, the advent of television strongly influenced everyday-life patterns, because many people adjust their activities around certain television programs. The entrance of television into Iranian society is almost a new event, but even in this short time, its deep and lasting effects on social relationships and the Iranian-Islamic identity can be seen clearly. The TV provide us with an overall framework and attitude towards social life, and influence our social identity, specially our religious identity. Due to its importance in providing this framework, we need to evaluate its consequences and impacts on social relationships. From this perspective, not only is the TV a mere entertainment provider, but also an active information and communication tool which has lasting effects on reproduction of culture and collective identity of the society. Thus, any study of television effects on religious identity is important. In addition, to identify the rate and type of television usage among students as a young group of society, and its relation to their identity, can help planners and policy makers to design strategies and policies specifically for this group. Because of the complexity of the issue, to examine the effects of television on religious identity, it seems that only one theory is insufficient to explain the issue completely. Therefore, a combined theoretical framework was used in this study to explain the effects of television, on religious identity. The main objectives of this study were to ascertain: 1) the students’ religious identity, 2) the rate and type of television consumption as a cultural commodity, and 3) and the relationship between rate and type of television consumption with religious identity of students. The study has been conducted via survey method. Research population included 12962 formally enrolled students of Mazandaran University, of whom 373 individuals were selected by means of multi-stage cluster sampling method, to fill a self-administered questionnaire. A 14-item scale is used to measure the rate and type of television consumption. Also, a 4 dimensional scale with 26 items was applied to measure religious identity (the dimensions being theological, experiential or emotional, outcome and ritual). The pre-test of final questionnaires was done in two stages among 100 respondents. Finally, all gathered data was analyzed using SPSS software.Discussion of Result & The findings of the study indicate that in general students have a high level of religious identity. However, there are some variances as one considers different levels of religious identity by its four dimensions for example, the highest and lowest reported scores belonged to theological (average of 4.61 out of 5) and ritual (average of 3.63) dimensions, respectively. Also, research findings on the rate of television consumption indicate that the status of television consumption among students is at a moderate to low level (average of 2.37 from 5). Furthermore, a considerable number of students (7.5 percent) never watch television. As explained in the Cultivation Theory, as a low-consuming audience of television, students watch TV in a selective and programmed fashion, only for 2 or less hours per day, but the usage of other media, especially the Internet, is higher among them. When Students consume television as a cultural commodity, they try to be "active", which means they try to interpret the content of the received program "actively". It seems that using other mass media (the Internet, books, magazines, etc.), and lack of access to the TV, and/or reluctance to watch national television programs, are responsible for this low level of TV consumption among students. This finding would be more important if one notice that according to sociologist's views (e.g. Giddens), today television could have very serious effects on daily-life patterns. One of the important findings of the present study is that it seems that along with increase in the consumption of national TV among students, the level of religious identity also tends to increase. This finding must be paid attention to by policy makers. Another important result of this study is the content of the programs watched by students as well as their effects on their religious identity. Entertainment and leisure programs (average of 3.29 from 5) were the first favorable programs while the least are those oriented towards religious issues (average of 2.23). The results of this study indicate that a reconsideration of the quality and quantity of religious programs on national TV is important in strengthening student's religious identity. On the other hand, this will have a great influence on the outcome dimension of religious identity. The findings suggest that higher levels of consumption of different TV programs can be effective on traditional religious identity of students. Therefore, filling the leisure time of individuals, especially young students, by television programs, could be seen as an effective strategy to be regarded by the relevant authorities. In fact, working on the quality of television programs and make them adjustable with the need of society, especially young students, is an important way to protect religious identity.