نشریه رسانه های دیداری و شنیداری
پیاپی 20 (پاییز 1392)

Iran’s Islamic Revolution has been the focus of intellectuals and scholars’ attention due to its constructive ideology and political structure being based on the tenet of “Velayat Faqih” (Islamic Jurisprudence).
This article addresses one of the current most significant issues on Islamic Revolution’s ideology (Shia Islam), i. e. its media representation. Therefore, Washington Post, one of the most US influential print media, is chosen and examined during two sensitive period of time, i. e. 1980 and 2010. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with Norman Fairclough approach has been used as the research methodology. Islamic Revolution’s ideology representation has been analyzed based on “West and Others”, “Orientalism”, “Covering Islam”, and “Tradition & Modernity” discourses and principles of Shia Islam.
The findings indicate that stereotyping, antithetical dualism, and stigmatization coming out of “West and Others”, “Orientalism”, and “Covering Islam” discoursesrepresent Islamic Revolution’s ideology in contradiction to such Shia Islam principles as “supreme leader”, “Velayat Fiqih”, “rejection of arrogance”, “rejection of oppression”, “fighting God’s enemies”, “wisdom” and “political experience”. Other techniques are simplification in “covering Islam” discourse, in which a simple and wrong image of government structure is represented. This approach is in contradictory to one of the Islamic Revolution ideology principle, i. e. wisdom and political experience. Furthermore, the consistent use of “I”, the author, in the articles brings about adversary and deficient discourses about the Islamic Revolution’s ideology.

This article aims to shed lights on the structural status of advertising teasers broadcast on IRIB’ TV by comparing a number of Iranian teasers with advertising teasers selected in international festivals. Each Iranian teaser is compared with an international one having a similar theme and being in compliance with Islamic Republic’s ethical media codes. Then by employing Selby and Cowdery model and using “shot” as the unit of analysis, each teaser is placed in a structure table consisted of mise-en-scène and technical codes. By going through other levels of this model, i. e. the audience, narrative, classification, and production elements, the article, finally, carries out a comparative analysis of these two sets of teasers. The research findings show that there are differences in the structural components of these two sets of teasers, i. e. differences in images, sounds, word usage, actors/actresses and sign systems, indicating a flaw in the structure of Iranian commercial teasers.

Genres are certain types or species of cultural and artistic products having certain elements in common. These shared factors for films include cliché plot, setting, characters, style and iconography. In film studies, genre is an industrial approach and an indicator for consumers as well as a critical concept and a tool for theorizing on the relationships between different sets of films, all at the same time.
In the latter sense, film genres are considered as standard ways for representing gender, class, race and ethnicity. Genres are semantic systems with many values, and therefore, could not be deemed abstract and ideologically pure. Genres could be studied under three rubrics, i. e. industry, audience and text. At the text level, genre is considered as a part of popular culture and a useful tool for dealing with media texts from an academic perspective. Genres are studied through six major approaches: Structuralist, socio-cultural, political economy, aesthetic, family resemblances and the discursive approach.

Today development of technology has facilitated the simultaneous broadcasting of multiple messages in the form of textual and sub-textual messages, and these appear regularly on television screens, in addition to computer monitors. While textual messages convey the main message of the media and occupy the major portion of the screen, sub-textual messages appear in the form of rolling strips. Given the Dual Process Theory, it is vital to ask whether or not such simultaneous textual and sub-textual messages can be processed by the audience. In fact, psychological theories run counter to the keenness of the media to transmit multiple messages. The present research empirically studies the impact of audience goal processing (as human factor) in relation to thematic coordination/non-coordination of textual/sub-textual messages (as media factor), on the degree of message recalling. 120 participants in four groups of 30, with assorted goals and motivations, were exposed to different forms of multiple textual and sub-textual messages. Notwithstanding the thematic coordination or non-coordination between textual and sub-textual messages, the results of different tests confirm the impact of goal processing on optimal message recalling. Also, when messages were presented as coordinated or non-coordinated, the media factor showed that each case had impact in its own way on the degree to which the information was recalled by audiences who goal-processed or, conversely, did not goal-process.

“Visual anthropology” is a term representing two different areas, i. e. “Film” and “ethnography”. Both fields employ certain methodologies and techniques to study various phenomena and developments. Need not to say that there are relatively big differences between these two fields rising out of their intrinsic disparities and methodological variations. The former deals with written texts and starts with theoretical principles and ends with analysis and reports, while the latter works with “celluloid tape”, beginning with ideas and concluding with filming and achievements. The question “how one could reach a sequence- and shot-based anthropological thinking through a written-text-based anthropological thinking” is answered in the present study. Taking a quick look at these two different fields, the article, further explains visual anthropology formation process, representation of feelings in visual anthropology and the related outstanding distinctions.

The present research aims to examine television status in Iranian families and individuals’ first reaction to a no-TV life proposition and this media’s possible alternatives. To find the significance of television in Iranian families’ lives, this question was posed: why do you watch TV and how much during a typical day? Then, the respondents were asked to stop watching TV for a couple of weeks and describe their life and feelings during this period of time. The conceptual framework was build around a number of theories, including “Use and Gratification Theory”, “Cultivation Theory”, “Dependent Audience Theory”, “Leisure Time Theory”, “Persuasion Theory”, “Nill Postman Critical Theory” as well as viewpoints of “Shahid Avini” on television. Research findings indicate that Iranian families’ reasons for watching television include prioritizing a certain program and individual’s personal situation. The consequences of a no-TV life for the families could be classified into the following categories: diversified performances, calmer life, change in the individual communications with others, exact planning in daily life and replacing the gained free times with personal and other media-related activities. The main effects on these families were a change in the status of television in their lives and increased discipline in their lives as well as a change in spending leisure times. The findings indicate that despite pleasant changes the no-TV circumstances brought to their lifestyle, these families were reluctant to repeat this no-TV experience.

The present article aims to explain the concept of “media event” as a new concept in communications sciences and media studies, and examine an outstanding case in this regard. This case is “the news coverage of British Queen’s grandson wedding ceremony by BBC Persian channel. ” The data were gathered through watching the footages related to news coverage of the wedding on BBC Persian. Semiotics was used for the analysis of the data using structural analysis for images and semiotics of connotations and denotations was employed for the analysis of the language components. In each sequence, the results were compared with the attributes of media event concept. “Thematic sequence” was the unit of analysis. The research findings indicate that this ceremony possesses the following characteristics: precise planning, world’s well-known media support for the ceremony, people’s wide participation, security and discipline during the ceremony. According to the finding, the wedding ceremony followed several covert propagation of culture, civilization and media, media technological competition and showing off superiority, power and capability to hold such a ceremony, setting the ground for 2012 Olympic games and expressing readiness for holding this ceremony, showing the glory of the monarchy, popularity with the monarchy, being beyond place and time, etc.