Cultural imperialism and satellite television in Iran

• Main Author: Joula, Sara A.
• Published: Loughborough University 2007
• Subjects: 384.55
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.529502

The increasing flow of international and Western cultural and information input into Iran, via satellite technologies, has affected the traditional, cultural and religious heritage of the country. Considering the political, cultural and economic realities of Iran and the history of its media, this research intends to examine the uneven flow of information and entertainment of global media via satellite in Iran within the context of the international communication and cultural imperialism theory. This study attempts to revise the cultural imperialism theory through a case study and identifies its limitations and the areas that could be developed within its infrastructure such that it will be applicable to the current situation and contemporary arguments of the media flow. It reviews the cultural imperialism theory in the light of the active audience's perspective and analyses the mixed and contradictory dynamics of reconstruction, adoption and resistance of international media. This research analyses the emergence of Persian language satellite television news and entertainment in Iran. A mixture of political, cultural and economic pressures dominates the editorial conduct of those expatriate and Persian language satellite channels. Political pressures, however, seem to be playing the most apparent role in that process. This study critically analyses the activities of Jaam-e-Jam and VOA Persian language satellite channels and examines the factors that affect the editorial policies and practice of the studied channels. It addresses these issues by studying the evolution, style of ownership, organisational structure, and content as well as editorial and managerial power hierarchy of those channels. In order to asses the attitudes, and encoded messages of these stations, a combination of content and discourse analysis is used. This research also empirically examines the audience's response in a detailed focus group investigation to see how they perceive and interpret the encoded messages.