A Representation of Hope and Happiness on Iranian Television (Case Report: Dorehami Program)

Hope and happiness has had a declining trend in Iran's society, which are the most influential social indicators of mental health. Therefore, with regards to the important function of television in entertainment, this article investigates the Dorehami TV series with the aim of representing hope and happiness in the national media.

The sample of this multi-method qualitative was selected from the programs of Nasim of (IRIB), four episodes of Dorehami TV series was investigated. Given the discourse nature of the research, semiotics analysis was used to represent hope and happiness in the media to discover hidden meanings and themes, and the critical discourse was used to find the underlying layers of the text.

The results showed that the concepts of hope and happiness were represented in this program with themes of social criticism through psychological components in three domains including:, factors (psychological): (laughter, humor, kindness, ability to pursue daily activities, adaptation to life's challenges, meaningful efforts in life, self-esteem, solution-oriented thinking), and social factors (social security and justice, achieving worldly interests).

Criticizing social and cultural issues in a humorous manner creates happy moments for the spectators, helps develop socially desirable cultures and behaviors which bring upon happiness and hopefulness in the society.