Mohammad Mahdi Forghan; Bahar Badiee
Abstract
Recent years have witnessed great changes in the field of mobile communication with the emergence of smartphones. The expansion of modern technologies is borderless and the Iranian society has also witnessed the social changes caused by media technologies. The lives of the youth, as the most accepting ...
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Recent years have witnessed great changes in the field of mobile communication with the emergence of smartphones. The expansion of modern technologies is borderless and the Iranian society has also witnessed the social changes caused by media technologies. The lives of the youth, as the most accepting group when it comes to new technologies, have been affected and changed by these technologies. The present study is concerned with the process of acquisition and domestication of smartphones by the Iranian youth. With a qualitative approach, we conducted in-depth interviews with a number of bachelor students studying in the city of Tehran and found six main categories of smartphone consumption in the personal and social lives of the interviewed Iranian youth. These categories are as follows: accessing information including looking up facts, reading news. The second category is location-based applications that include showing locations, controlling locations, and feeling safe. The third category is communicating including using social networks, using some application programs and getting detached from real communities. The fourth category called technological adaptation includes being everywhere, ease of learning, and fluidity of technology. The fifth category is individual independence. This includes independence from family and forming selective relationships. Finally, the sixth category is controlling technology consumption. It includes controlling how one’s virtual identity is represented.
Mohammad Mehdi Forghani; Mohammad Mehdi Forghani
Abstract
This article is looking for the elements of the US media diplomacy toward the Iranian Eleventh Government. For this purpose, the Persian website of Voice Of American was studied using qualitative content analysis in a period of 104 days, from 1st of August, 2014 to 28th of November. The findings show ...
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This article is looking for the elements of the US media diplomacy toward the Iranian Eleventh Government. For this purpose, the Persian website of Voice Of American was studied using qualitative content analysis in a period of 104 days, from 1st of August, 2014 to 28th of November. The findings show that VOA has tried to prepare the public for the negotiations and Tehran’s submission to the wills of the West. It has tried to do so, on one hand by presenting a peaceful and rational image of the West, and on the other hand by showing a strong and serious face against Iran. Moreover, VOA has tried to promote public support for policies compatible with that of the West and promote a critical approach against non-compatible policies. VOA also attempted to promote the idea that the government is incapable of functioning in Iran’s so-called non-democratic structure and claimed that Iran’s tendency to negotiation was because of the effectiveness of the sanctions. VOA painted the situation as Iran’s anti-imperialist approach has failed and the only way to save the Islamic Republic is to adopt a western model and promote relations with the West. VOA introduced the current situation as the best time for peace and for reforming the Iranian political system.
