فصلنامه جامعه، فرهنگ، رسانه
پیاپی 2 (بهار 1391)

There is no day that the media do not publish anything about corruption. Corruption in human societies is as old as the civilization and remains as one of the problems facing many countries of the world. Corruption makes irreparable harm to the development and social welfare, undermines public trust, and is the reason for loss of an enormous part of social capital and public resources.Fight against all forms of corruption is considered one of the universal duties and responsibilities of journalists. Independent media exposing the corruption and hidden aspects of collusions, while contributing in transparency in society, provides equal opportunities and social welfare for all citizens. Under the pressure of independent media, governments and authorities have to fulfill their obligations in the fight against corruption. Investigative journalism is a form of journalism that exclusively attempts to find "corruption" and expose it. This paper that has a theoretical-practical approach, tries to answer this question: “how can investigative journalism fight with corruption as one of the obstacles of social welfare”?

The meaning of the term “culture” implies progress, advancement, and development. Culture is the way that people choose to live by, a set of rules and traditions, legacy of the passed generations, which affects every relationship between people in the society. Thus, for implementing any approach in large scale, the approach must become a culture for the society. Insurance industry is one of the main strategies to achieve development and welfare of the communities, that in today's risky environment, the less one thinks of social welfare in the absence of insurance. In this paper, while describing the cultural background of the formation of insurance, it is emphasized that the relationship between insurance and development and welfare depends on the different cultural status of the countries that apply the insurance industry, and then, it addresses the cultural background of the formation of insurance industry.

One of the social groups that have a marginalized status in many communities including Iran is the elderly people. One of the effective social measures to help aged people is to "empowering" them so that they can handle their own situation. Among the tools used to enable them, the Internet provides a broad perspective for social planners. Using the Internet allows aged people overcome many physical, geographical, economical, and social limitations. Among the web services, email is the most pervasive and popular online communicating activity of the elderly people. Thus, the main question is: “what grounds can create for empowering the elderly by using email”? To answer that question, 15 deep interviews were carried out with old people who used the Internet. After reviewing the data, the findings were presented in four categories: audience of communication, content of communication, level of communication, and content generation rate. The analysis of the findings show that the main audience of elderly people's emails is their family members and interacting with other aged people is not their priority; so, the content of their emails is largely personal conversation, although there are instances of forwarding emails with political and social content that is indicative of their social presence. But, ultimately, we have to say that using the web for empowering and improving the well being of old people needs social planning and policy making.

Contributions of women in cultural affairs and their role in social positions lead to women's empowerment in family and more involvement in making important decisions of the family, the outcome of which is much more welfare for the family. This study strives to see what is the relationship between the cultural contribution of women and the welfare and well being of the family with respect to the social changes in the modern day? In other words, what part of the family well being and welfare can be explained by women’s contribution? First, the theoretical discussions in line with the issue have been presented and then the assumption under study has been defined. The needed data were collected and analyzed using survey method and the tool of questionnaire with housewives in the Dist. 9 of Tehran as sample population. The analysis showed that there is a meaningful relationship between cultural participation of women in religious, charitable, and association activities and social welfare of the families.

Information is an essential element of wise decision making and appropriate information empowers people and communities. Use of media and modern information and communication technologies (satellites, optical fibers, and the Web) enables people, groups, and other entities to achieve the latest knowledge from distant locations by using just a computer, modem and/or telephone. Actually, globalization is possible only through information and communication technology. Advancements in medicine and modern communicating information with clients, have changed the method of delivering health information and services, and have affected the health of people and community increasingly. The convergence of media (computer, phone, TV, radio, video, print and audio) and the development of the Internet have created an infrastructure for a comprehensive communication network. These infrastructure facilities have led to a growing collection of health information, health-related support services, and development of information technology for health issues. Channels providing information, such as the Web, have increased the options available for health experts for communicating with patients and clients, as well as the options provided for patients and clients to interact with heath specialists and each other to attain information. Comparing to the traditional mass media, interactive communicating media (e. g. the Internet) provides great benefits for health related information and communication technology.These benefits include: 1- Improving access to individual health information2- Accessing information, support, and requested health services by health professionals and patients3- Enhancing the ability to spread information in large scale4- Supporting timely decision making5- Providing more options for clientsDigital technologies are used well in communications for health in order to support comprehensive prevention programs. Prevention focused on society shifts the attention from the individual to the group level change and emphasizes on enabling individuals and communities to bring about change in different levels.

Social welfare is a system of programs, rules, services and aids that responds to the people’s basic needs and provides facilities to meet these needs. And one of the essential needs is the need to education. Regarding today's absorption of population in cities and formation of a new form of cities, one of the dimensions and subjects that have attracted the attention of the majority of experts in urban planning is addressing issues such as social justice and culture in urban topics.One of the aspects showing observance of social justice in cities is the appropriate physical combination of the facilities. In this regard the location of the educational facilities of the city, as one of the biggest sections producing urban travel, has a major role in consumption rate of energy in transportation section. In addition, it can affect the educational efficiency of the learners as well as affecting quantitative educational matters. This paper, from the stand point of social justice and emphasizing on cultural facilities in standard of adjacent facilities in the city, addresses the comparative evaluation of educational facilities in districts 6 and 13 of Tehran.The findings of the paper, derived from analytical functions of ArcGIS software on the data attained from these districts, shows that in Dist. 6 student's access to the schools and in Dist. 13 the adjacent facilities, schools are in a better position compared to other district. Therefore, paying attention to the standards and principles of positioning the educational facilities in locating future educational facilities and its adjacent facilities in these districts is necessary to achieve social justice for the citizens and improve the functionality of educational facilities due to closeness to cultural facilities.

The purpose of this paper is describing, explaining, and analyzing the role of religion and culture in development of communities, and make clear the position of these two important and driving factors in social and economical development and social welfare. From the stand point of purpose, the present study is descriptive and explanatory, and the contents support the findings through library research method using the compiling resources, books and some of the complied and translated articles, and websites.

As “Frances Cairn cross” states "The most important thing about a new technology is not how to use it, but how people use it and the changes it brings about in people's life". This paper tries to find the relationship between ICT and social welfare, particularly the effects of these technologies on social welfare. Therefore, various dimensions of issue were reviewed using library and documentary method on available studies that had examined this issue.First, ICT and its multiple subsets and types are explained and then the different approaches to these technologies including technical and social approaches are discussed and their differences are defined. Second, there will be a reference to the ideas of the theorists who have spoken about these technologies. Third, there will be discussions about the relationship between information and communication technologies and social welfare as well as social effects and changes have introduced in the society by these technologies. Finally, the implemented projects outside of Iran are reviewed and the specific situation of the Iranian society, activities, events, and some of the decisions taken about information and communication technologies in Iran and their effect are addressed. The findings of this study shows that the influence and outcome of prevalence of information technologies on people's lifestyle has lead to improvement of their social welfare. Also, the application of these technologies in the economic, cultural, and social dimensions is such that allows for timely services, with lower cost; easier access to opportunities; along with using comments of citizens in handling society; enhancing political aspect of city and citizens; and finally improving their social status. Another point obtained from this review is that greater use of these technologies requires a greater breadth of vision that in turn will lead to much more effectiveness of these technologies.