Understanding Policy Implications of Laws and Regulations for Broadcast Media in Iran

This paper aims to explore the characteristics and themes of broadcasting media policy in Iran from  Islamic revolution(1078-1979) until the present time Broadcasting media policy is a subset of media policy and public policy as the umbrella concepts. Laws, regulations and legislations are the main means of reinforcing public policies by governments and governmental branches to deal with any kinds of public matters, such as the public service broadcasting systems. Accordingly, all the ratified laws and regulatory documents concerning broadcast media in Iran are collected as the research materials. To analyze these empirical data, qualitative content analysis and thematic coding are applied to explore the main themes of broadcasting media policy in Iran. The results indicate that rigid state ownership, promoting political and cultural discourses, unification, using state-secured budgets, focusing on mass audience, and developing air broadcasting technology have been the core themes and characteristics of broadcasting media policy paradigm in Iran during the past four decades. Discussing these themes, research findings indicate that in the given time horizon, the government has always reinforced regulatory policies for broadcast media to impose limitations and restrictions on possible broadcasting activities of different actors. Moreover, findings show this policy model has been continuously reinforcing with the least changes in Iran, while the first paradigm of policy attempt for broadcast media based on the monopolization by the state-funded broadcaster belongs to the years prior to the 1980s in most countries.