Communications
H. Khaniki; S. Mousavi
Abstract
Water Withdrawal in Iran is more than the capacity of renewable resources. In addition, Iran is facing a decline in surface water and groundwater. But, it seems the water problem is not well understood in society. Furthermore, there is no consensus in perception of this problem. The media can play an ...
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Water Withdrawal in Iran is more than the capacity of renewable resources. In addition, Iran is facing a decline in surface water and groundwater. But, it seems the water problem is not well understood in society. Furthermore, there is no consensus in perception of this problem. The media can play an important role in this regard. In recent years, as the problem became more serious and its consequences more apparent, media attention to this issue has increased. But, how the media portrays this issue is unclear. So, this study aims to identify the representation of Iran’s water issue in mainstream newspapers. To achieve this goal, quantitative content analysis has been applied and contents of four mainstream newspapers have been reviewed over a period of seven years. Based on the findings, natural factors are the most prominent cause of water problems and the authorities’ views are more and the people’s views are less distinguished in these newspapers. In other words, the content of newspapers is consistent with the government’s views. "Crisis", "Water scarcity" and "drought" are the most highlighted vocabularies in headlines. These words hide the role of people and officials in creating the problem and represents water problem as a natural problem. Furthermore, water is highlighted as a problem that must be addressed by the government and the role of people is reduced to saving. Whereas, a good governance requires involvement of civil society in decision making.
Political Sciences
M. Adibi; M. Tavasoli Roknabadi; M Taghavi
Abstract
The question of how to confront the West has always been an important issue for Iranians and their political and intellectual elites. The Islamic Revolution of Iran was a product of such a concern. Ayatollah Morteza Motahari, as one of the most important ideologue of the Islamic Revolution, tried to ...
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The question of how to confront the West has always been an important issue for Iranians and their political and intellectual elites. The Islamic Revolution of Iran was a product of such a concern. Ayatollah Morteza Motahari, as one of the most important ideologue of the Islamic Revolution, tried to provide an account of Islam that is able to compete with new Western ideologies, particularly Marxism, in order to prevent the youth from being attracted to such ideologies. He created new meanings and notions derived from religious, traditional and even modern roots. In this paper, the main question is how the West is represented in Motahari’s political discourse. The post-colonial approach is the theoretical framework and Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse analysis theory is the research method. The findings of the research indicate that Motahari through representation and creation of otherness draws an identity boundary between “us” (Iranians) and the other (the West), and represents the latter with signifiers such as imperialist, exploiter, evil, cruel and darkness.
