فصلنامه رسانه
سال بیست و پنجم شماره 3 (پیاپی 96، پاییز 1393)

Dual specization of living in the contemporary world underlines the need for reengineering of modern changes that have been created in the makeup and nature of social life – changes that are the logical consequence of the “dual specized world’s becoming dual capacity.” It is under such “real – virtual development” that we can talk about “computer games” along “traditional games” as well as development of the game industry realm in real and virtual spaces. It must be noted that expansion of the scope of games studies on the basis of dual capacity of the games industry is not limited to emergence of new computer games or change, marketing and expansion of traditional games in a new space. Here attention should also be paid to the capacities of virtual spaces as grounds for research. This paper reviews “value priorities of social website users in connection with computer games” and pays special attention to website space among virtual website structures. On this basis, the paper classifies and analyzes the data related to the needs of social website users in connection with computer games in two stages: A. Identification of social and user-based websites concerning computer games; and B. Qualitative meta-analysis of computer game websites. The methodology used in this study is qualitative meta-analysis in which the views of internet association users have been classified and then analyzed. The findings of this research show that the priorities and expectations of players from computer games are dividable in terms of value, capacity and content. Moreover, based on the progress of web technology, the trend of computer games in the future is directed at integration of games world with real life and the games being present everywhere and possible everywhere.

Representation of images of holy personalities in movies has taken place in different ways from the beginning till now. Thinking about the evolution of this issue, it can be realized that in line with the change in attitudes and spiritual and rational approaches of producers of these works, the status of holy personalities has also changed in their viewpoints and consequently representation of holy figures in movies has undergone changes. At present with respect to the interest shown by Muslim nations in production of movies with religious themes, the mechanism of representing prophets of monotheistic religions in movies has been attached special importance because on the basis of certain religious prohibitions any kind of depiction of the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) and his infallible household should be avoided. For this reason, dealing with the issue of representing Islamic holy personalities in movies, where depicting them is the main factor, has faced important and complicated challenges. Scrutinizing the produced movies in this respect and reviewing the level of depiction made in them in proportion with the spiritual status of religious noblemen and simultaneously avoiding their direct and complete depiction can reduce obstacles existing in this field and pave the way for producing movies based on reproduction in proportion with their divine status. Reviewing the history of depiction of the image of Prophet of Islam (PBUH) in movies, this paper provides a semiotic analysis of “The Message: the Story of Islam” or “Mohammad, the Messenger of God” as the most important film that focuses on the prophet’s life. On the basis of semiotics literature, the semiotic analysis of chosen scenes of this film reviews each scene in the paradigmatic and syntagmatic axes in order to decode that scene. On this basis, it is shown how the director of the movie has devised provisions in writing the screenplay, the mechanism of filming and using music symbolically by applying various symbols and codes so that while representing the holy Prophet of Islam (PBUH) with a purifying approach he would avoid representing a physical image of the Prophet.

The objective of this study is to review comparatively the status in top companies and brands of cultural products and goods from the viewpoint of advertising budget with emphasis on tables of the advertising expenses and of top companies on the basis of ranking of the Industrial Management Institute with respect to the general policies of the Fifth Development Plan in cultural field. The theoretical framework of this research is a combination of the viewpoints of critics of cultural studies in the field of economy of culture and culture industry with focus on commercial advertising and on the importance of branding in culture and identity of the society from the viewpoint of David Aker, a pundit in the field of branding at international level. In this study a combination of methods including survey, documentation and content analysis of tables of advertising expenses has been used. The findings of the research, including 10 top companies in terms of advertising budget and top Iranian companies in terms of sale amount (rankings of Industrial Management Institute), show: Top Iranian companies and top companies in terms of advertising budget have considered a very low position for cultural goods and products in the years between 2011 and 2013. Most of the advertising is related to financial institutions and banks, communicative and information technological services companies, household appliances and foodstuff from the viewpoint of budget, number and recurrence.

During the past three decades the media image of entrepreneurs has changed considerably. But, what effects do the mass media have on the policy, ideals and activities of entrepreneurship? With their strong information dissemination power, the mass media- the print media in particular- play a very important role in the dimensions of knowledge, awareness as well as social, economic and entrepreneurship values. By influencing thoughts, the media can lay emphasis on preservation of social values and development of entrepreneurship motives. Assessment of the performance of the print media in dissemination of information on dimensions of entrepreneurship development can orient the public opinion and evaluate the speed of publication of information and news in the field of entrepreneurship. With respect to the complexity and tight rivalry existing in the market- which of course is accompanied by rapid developments in the business atmosphere and passing from industrial society to information society- entrepreneurship can play an important role in this respect like stimuli for economic development and cause increase in productivity, creation of job opportunities and social welfare. The press can influence the values, conducts and thoughts of the people. Therefore, this study attempts to respond to the question as how the print media can expand dimensions of entrepreneurship through precise information dissemination. This study has used library method for its literature review and theoretical principles. For the practical section, content analysis of scientific reports, interviews by entrepreneurs and commentaries and analyses published by the print media on entrepreneurship have been used. To conduct the research, over 2100 issues of economic, social and political newspapers during one year were reviewed. The findings of the research indicate that the role of the print media in promoting dimensions of entrepreneurship and their role in creating entrepreneurship motivation is very tiny. And they mainly focus on merely disseminating information and reflecting on activities carried out in this field.

The theoretical basis of alternative media is the anti-hegemonic concept of (the Italian Marxist theoretician and politician Antonio) Gramsci and the concept of culture industry of the Frankfurt School. With these concepts, they criticize the function of the mass media, the main current in distribution and reinforcement of capitalistic thoughts and capitalistic hegemony in the society. The mainstream media are ideological, hegemonic and non-critical media which act to preserve the capitalistic system and strengthen globalization and cultural imperialism project. The alternative media are defined as opposed to the mainstream media. The objective of alternative media is to challenge forms of capitalism dominant in the fields of media products, media structure, as well as media content, distribution and reception. These media deal with subjects such as social movements, post-Marxist approaches and new political demands. The alternative media are not known in the theoretical literature of communication and media atmosphere of the country and Iran’s political and media institutions do not have clear policies to use them in media diplomacy. While reviewing the theoretical dimensions of alternative media, this study presents approaches to use the alternative media in media diplomacy. The alternative media are considered an opportunity for the media system of the country, which can use this potential to represent itself and to manage the public opinion of other societies.

The international order has faced fundamental changes since the beginning of the 1970s and following the fall of the Berlin Wall, change of communist governments in East Europe and collapse of the Soviet Union. This development was faced with considerable transformation in policies and procedures especially after 9/11. Under the new conditions, the mass media are considered the main vanguards of this movement. Today, the media are not merely reflecting the conducts of statesmen and states as they used to do in the past, but they play an effective role as active players in the political arena in decision making and even decision taking. In communities such as Iran where the media can persuade people in cultural fields, this diplomacy plays a significant role. To counter the broad media inroad of the enemies of the establishment, one of the rational and reasonable ways under the current atmosphere is building agenda or in other words active media diplomacy in cooperation with concerned institutions such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs… In this line, recognition of media diplomacy is imperative and enjoys considerable importance. By using descriptive-analytical method and definitions of diplomacy and public diplomacy, this paper intends to define media diplomacy and describe the role and function of media diplomacy, its tools and instruments and functions of media in the diplomatic arena and finally explain media diplomacy models.

This paper intends to review the performances of the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) and the British Broadcasting Media (BBC) and compare the two domestic and foreign news agencies. Our main objective is to analyze the print and photo coverage of the 1012 London Olympic Games by IRNA and BBC. The methodology of this research is qualitative and content analysis has been used. Its statistical population is all the sports news stories aired by IRNA and BBC within the month-long 2012 Olympic Games. BBC posted a total of 123 news stories of which 120 were reviewed in this study. From among 1000 news stories covered by IRNA, 120 were selected on the basis of systematic random sampling method and SPSS was used to analyze the data. The findings of the research indicate that there is a significant difference between the performance of the two news agencies in the fields of type of subject, photo, news writing style, news elements and news coverage on the basis of gender; that is the stories are event-oriented, pictures are archived ones, the news writing style is inverted pyramid and the news elements of ‘what’ and ‘who’ are used by IRNA more than BBC, while the latter showed more attention to stories about female athletes. On the subject and news values there was no significant difference from statistical point of view between the two news agencies.