Abstract
The relationship between media and politics in Iran is significantly complicated and multidimensional. Although the so-called independent press and news media are being published in a regular basis, the entire media sphere is being shaped by the state regime, and most of media platforms reflect the state’s will. The main goals of this article are to explain the present conditions and characteristics of the relationship between media and politics and to explore the social and cultural causes, discourses, and myths which have allegedly justified the strong governmental interventions and influences in the Iranian media sphere. We consider causal layered analysis (CLA), as a critical futures studies method, to be an appropriate method to deconstruct the present status and envision the future of the relationship between media and politics in Iran. We utilize four different layers of analysis. First, we determine different aspects of litany level, including the role of media in promoting enmity in discourse about Iran’s enemies, real and fictitious. Second, we specify different systemic causes for the current relationship between media and politics, including the continuous attempts of Iran’s state regime to control and dominate the entire media sphere. Third, we review the two main discourses involved in the 1978–1979 Revolution in Iran. Each discourse is focused on constructing alternative responses to the controversy between tradition and modernity in the contemporary history of Iran. Fourth, in the entitled level of metaphor or myth, we identify the narrative of “Educating the Populace” as the deepest myth behind the relationship between media and politics in Iran. At the next stage of this study, we construct the possible scenarios for the future of the relationship between media and politics in Iran based on the dominance of competitive root discourses. Finally, we argue that one should go beyond the discursive layer to find the alternative futures of the relationship between media and politics in Iran. These alternative futures are associated with the emancipation from the competition between the traditionalism and modernism discourses and changing the deepest myths behind the relationship between media and politics.
Highlights
Media and politics are tightly interconnected in Iran; political deployment and a predilection for different political opinions and objectives are crucial aspects of Iran’s media sphere
In this article, we attempt to investigate the multiple layers of causes that constitute the current relationship between media and politics in Iran
Any given solution is not required to be practical, since different layers of analysis from apparent issues to the more deeply latent controversies or compromises take us into the more abstract notions that we cannot translate into a specific policy or agenda
Summary
Media and politics are tightly interconnected in Iran; political deployment and a predilection for different political opinions and objectives are crucial aspects of Iran’s media sphere. Whether during the Pahlavi era or after the Iranian Revolution in 1978–1979, the history of media and communication in Iran indicates that all the state regimes and governments have aimed to control the media sphere by different means, like through censorship or licensing [1]. Officials and politicians resort to employing different media platforms to advocate their political interests. These interests may be advanced through official apparatus, like enforcing a law or legalizing censorship, or unofficial ones like threatening and bribing journalists or fulminating against those who do not support a certain political opinion or objective. After the establishment of a modern centralized state regime in the country, all the political systems and governments in Iran have tended not to cooperate, negotiate, or participate but to control, bridle, and supervise the media
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