The Role of Cyberspace in Framing the Decisions of the Voters: A Study of the Tenth Majles Elections in Tehran

The central concern of this paper is to assess the role played by the cyberspace in the construction of decision making frames for voters. The cases studied are the election campaigns in Tehran - Iranian megalopolise and the Capital of Islamic Republic - during the tenth elections for the Majles (parliament). In accordance with interpretive approach in social sciences, we have opted for a qualitative method and have used framing theory as a guiding analytical framework that has in many ways modified rational choice theory. We interviewed a number of citizens in Tehran who had taken part in the elections and at the same time were regular internet users during the election campaigns. With the help of thematic analysis, we processed and interpreted the data collected through the semi-structural interviews that we had conducted. Our findings indicate that cyberspace has played a major role in the cognitive, problem-identification, and motivational frames of the voters through social media’s agenda setting, priming, clue giving, and decontextualizing effects, either directly or indirectly through opinion leaders. During those elections, the cyberspace played a candid role at three levels: inciting people to go the polls, leading them to vote for an entire list of candidates put up by political blocs, and reinforcing or modifying support for this or that bloc.