فصلنامه رسانه
سال بیست و ششم شماره 1 (پیاپی 98، بهار 1394)

In the globalized and media dominated world of today, access to media and representation tools has turned into an urgent need for all individuals, groups and communities as well as geographical and cultural regions and areas. Local radio and TV channels are among media models that enjoy unique importance in this context and, by using their local advantage, they have numerous capacities and potentials to protect and support cultural diversity. Therefore, with respect to the high cultural diversity in Iran, this paper discusses proper policymaking requirement in the provincial networks of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) in proportion with Iran’s cultural diversity. From this perspective, the necessities, goals and functions of IRIB provincial channels, as local media, have been reviewed. For this purpose, first components of media policy, which emphasize the need to promote cultural diversity and local channels, are listed and then the global trend of media support for cultural diversity discussed. The research has employed case study as its methodology. Assessing the policies of IRIB provincial channels, the findings of the study indicate that support for cultural diversity has enjoyed a special status in the goals drawn up for them, though shortcomings are witnessed especially with respect to the language factor. In addition, assessment of the performance of these channels with respect to cultural diversity indicates that there are weaknesses besides their points of strength. This article emphasizes that although provincial channels have useful functions and capacities in supporting cultural diversity and strengthening local democracy, there are limitations and problems which affect the performance of these channels and for this reason there is dire need to review the existing policies and draw up better strategies.

Staffs in organizations expect their managers to provide favorable and supportive climate to meet their needs. Furthermore, in today’s challenging world, organizations strive to hire employees to work beyond their job description and responsibility. The importance of what was said is more explicit in media organizations due to differences between media and industrial organizations. Therefore, this mutual need and absence of necessary studies on relationship between these two variables in media organizations require examination of the relationship between organizational climate perceived by employees and their citizenship behavior The sampling comprised 175 journalists from the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). Questionnaire was used to collect data. The research hypotheses were tested using statistical hypothesis testing. Accordingly, utilizing structural equation modeling, all hypotheses were confirmed.

This research has been conducted with the purpose of studying the role of virtual social networks in changing the nature of news and information in the society while emphasizing on the Face Book. This research has employed survey method and used questionnaire for collecting data. Journalists who are members of the Face Book social network comprise the statistical population of this research. The findings of this study have shown that most of respondents use the internet for more than 4 hours a day and use Face Book more than other networks to complete or get their stories. However, they use Face Book very little during the day. Most of them have been Face Book members for about three years and this social network formally or informally has had effect on the way they publish their news stories. In addition, since Face Book is filtered and using it is considered a violation by legal authorities, the newspapers these journalists work with use this network little and very little for communicating with their audiences or for selling more. Most of the respondents said they were not members of teachers and parents associations, Islamic societies, sports & entertainment associations, scientific-specialized associations, guild associations, local assemblies, parties and formal political groupings, NGOs, Charity and Basij (mobilization) associations.

The purpose of this research is to study the relationship between Iranian names and series broadcast by satellite television networks. Both Documentation and Survey methods have been used in this research. The statistical population includes all children born between the years 1382 (March 21, 2003- March 20, 2004) and 1392 (March 21, 2013 – March 20, 2014), that is children under 10 years of age in Iran). Based on the Cochran's formula, the sample population for distribution of questionnaire was estimated to be at least 384 persons and 428 questionnaires were used. The ANOVA and Chi-square tests and SPSS software have been used to analyse the data. The findings of the research indicate that six Iranian names (Nahal, Samar, Omar, Laleh, Yassamin, Aysan) have registered a meaningful increases in connection with various series broadcast from different satellite television networks. The documentary findings and questionnaire results are compared with one another. Documentary results indicate that the names have meaningful relationship with (names used in the) broadcast series. Yet, analysis of the questionnaires shows that people do not believe in media effect on naming children.

Today a new spectrum of media has found its footing among people. One of these media is computer games. Meanwhile cultural hegemony exists in the media and tries to induce its own beliefs in the audience through the media or through some kind of cultural control in a way that the audience or the consumer of the media would think they have freedom of choice. In this study, the researcher aims to semiotically define and analyze the life style in a computer game called “The Sims”.The Sims is an ideological game in role playing genre which despite its claims on neutrality, tries to exhibit a specific life style. The researchers are looking for responses to questions on issues such as the mechanism of displaying life style in the Sims, consumption and personality. They have come to the conclusion that the Sims displays the Western life style and that consumption is the only thing that has been attached importance in it as further consumption results in attaining perpetual happiness! This game also displays a community with a capitalistic system, which intends to make people entertain their life so that they could continue their life through this made-up happiness, which is attained only through consumption.

This paper aims to review the mechanisms soft news has been used in the news programs of “20:30” of Channel 2 of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and the “60 Minutes” of the BBC Persian Television. Soft news is a news genre that has a feature style nature and is mainly used to cover human-interest topics in the public sphere, which can be said in an informal language. This news genre has had by far a longer precedence in news reports of developed countries and in networks such as CNN, Deutsche Welle and Fox News. It is included in the agenda of majority of news networks. The methodology of this study is content analysis and inverse questionnaire has been used to collect data. The findings of the research indicate that although the lion’s share of the contents of both news programs dealt with “Iran”, BBC’s “60 Minutes” news program has used “soft news” more than IRIB’s “20:230” news program. Moreover, BBC’s “60 Minutes” news program has acted more successfully in terms of quantity (content analysis) in using news styles, news sources, neutral or impartial orientation and airing footages as well as in terms of quality (narrative journalism) compared to IRIB Channel 2’s “20:30” news program.

Information and communications have assumed great importance for both societies and states throughout history. Therefore, information and communication technologies which provide for dissemination of information have always been followed, regulated and controlled by governments. The method applied by the state to this end is communication policies. This study tries to address how the United States of America, as one of the most efficient countries of the world in the field of communication, used new communication technologies in wars [Vietnam War (1965-1973), the first Persian Gulf War (1990-1991) and the second Persian Gulf War (Iraq War) (2003)] and how this was reflected in news policies of the country.