Political Threats of the Cell Phone and its Coping Strategies

Following the introduction of cell phone technology into the field of communication tools, we have witnessed the significant role played by this communication instrument in people’s individual and social lives. Since every kind of media is capable of changing political, cultural and social structures, the same capability can be imagined for the cell phone, particularly, due to its widespread use. Hence, introduction of this technology into the fields of governance and politics requires attention. Accordingly, in this paper, the media threats arising from the cell phone in the field of politics and the required coping strategies are evaluated on the basis of users’ views. Based on the obtained results, most users agree with the political threats of the cell phone: 48% of users agreed with the threat of “organized social emotions”, 63.3% agreed with the threat of “taking photographs and videos of political events”, 98.3% agreed with the threats of “facilitating the organization of subversive activities” and 98.5% agreed with the threat of “spreading rumors”. Also, the highest proportions of threat caused by the cell phone were evaluated to be “very high” (22.5%) and “high” (20%). Most of the users recommended functional solutions including “training” (35%) and “culture development” (23%).