The Role of Urban Planning in Designing the Ideal Model of National Media with Emphasis on Ethnic Culture

Introduction :

Modern developments in many societies have affected all structures and pushed them towards global imperialism in such a way that the most basic dimensions of people such as culture, identity, and ethnicity have undergone changes. In analyzing the role of the media in urban planning, most experts and analysts point to the dual role and function of the media in this category: that is, on the one hand, the media can keep pace with the system and logically defend macro-policies, with valuation and value creation, message induction, and highlighting. To legitimize the policies of the system, they should take a step towards establishing harmony and ethnic integration. In such a situation, due to the special role that the media play in the transmission of information and communication in all political, cultural, urban, social, and economic fields, they can influence the degree of ethnic convergence in the circulation of information and the amount of information injected into the society to increase the ultimate national unity. Therefore, in countries like Iran, which has a diverse ethnic structure, ethnicity can be considered as one of the indicators of introducing people. Smith believes: ethnic ties, like other social ties, are exposed to social, economic, and political forces, and therefore they change and fluctuate according to different social situations and conditions. The main issue of this research is how the national media can communicate with Iranian ethnic groups with the help of urban planning so that no ethnic group is separated from the national media and is equated with the national media. The purpose of this research is to the role of urban planning in designing the ideal model of national media with an emphasis on ethnic culture.

The method of conducting this research is qualitative and grounded theory. Grounding theory is the process of generalizing the results of a particular observation to a more comprehensive theory. During this method, a theory is extracted from daily experiences, interactions, documents, literature, and observations by inductive method. The researcher does not start his work with a theory that he wants to prove, but he starts with a study in the field and allows things related to that field to reveal themselves. The statistical population of this research is professors and experts in the field of media management, social communication sciences, and senior managers and deputies of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Organization and the municipality. To interview the experts, in consultation with the supervisor, an open and in-depth interview was conducted with 30 people for a complete and comprehensive analysis of the field of managing national media relations with Iranian ethnic groups. Research data has been collected and processed by two library methods and field studies. Library studies: In this method, by reviewing the research conducted in libraries and databases, internal and external theses, and articles, it was brought to the researcher’s attention through an internet search to receive information. Using the grounded theory method and analyzing the information obtained from the interviews with the experts, and as a result, the research-based theory is formulated.

In response to the question, what are the methods of Sedavasima [national media] to contribute to urban planning? They have stated cases that after summarization and analysis were categorized into 4 categories including “media productions, the role of urban planning with a focus on needs assessment, ethnic culture, the introduction of ethnic-media patterns”. Media production in the national media is one of the most central areas of media activity. So, it monitors the whole process of media activities and efforts. Considering the audience’s role in the communication process and paying attention to the audience’s wishes, desires, and needs, sensitivity in the production of media programs is necessary in assessing the needs of the audience. It is necessary to provide the context of using urban planning with the purpose of needs assessment, which is important in creating urban management. Experts have pointed out the capacity of ethnic culture, strengthening and development of festivals and specialized exhibitions on the topic of ethnic groups, showing the development of the province using the economic participation of ethnic groups. By properly identifying reference groups such as scholars and athletes, and strengthening them, the national media provides a suitable platform for the trust of different ethnic groups in the media.

The research results showed that the role of urban planning is possible by focusing on audience needs assessment. It also mentioned the media productions derived from the needs assessment, the culture of the ethnic groups in the cultural weeks, and the introduction of ethnic-media patterns. The solutions obtained from this research were placed in two provincial and national categories and three urban, economic, and political areas. In the end, the following model can be obtained. Moreover, it has a significant relationship with the research results of Ramin Rouholahi. According to experts, urban planning is created through maximizing solidarity. The most important and main idea of the theory of audience dependence is the need and dependence of the audience on mass media information sources for knowing and orientation towards social events. In the situation where we are faced with a variety of mass media, a successful media can meet the needs of its audience. The existence of various ethnicities and religions living in Iran causes the national media to face a variety of needs and demands, and this makes the task of network operators more complicated in meeting their demands. On the other hand, broadcasting aims to promote the native culture of each region and to introduce and advocate the ethnic culture while protecting the sub-cultures to bring about the convergence of ethnic groups and increase national unity and cohesion.