Critical Discourse Analysis of Cultural and Political Messages Displayed on the Billboards of Tehran Municipality

This research has been carried out to analyze the critical discourse of cultural and political messages of Tehran municipality which have been displayed on Tehran municipality billboards as of 2006 through 2016. This research focuses on understanding the components of this discourse which constitute the nodal points, floating signals and the articulation of moments of Tehran municipality in order to find out the chain of equivalence-difference used by the mentioned institution to marginalize and antagonize the discourse components of the rivals which make up the research purposes. The researcher has reached the theoretical diffusion selecting the statistical population by analyzing 25 messages on purpose. The methodology of this research is based on a qualitative research of discourse analysis according to the post structuralist approach of E. Laclau and S. Moffe. The findings of this research reveal that the nodal point and the guardianship-centeredness are focused by the municipality; the jihadi management, the clergy, and anti-westernism are articulated around this focal point  which conform with principalism discourse. The hidden layers of the messages are revealed by highlighting the features of self-discourse and marginalizing the articulative signifies of the rival and that they have been pursuing some hidden goals which are to gain the political and ideological hegemony of the reformism discourse and achieving the political power of the mayor.