CULTURAL STUDIES & COMMUNICATION
Year:2006 | Volume:2 | Issue:6|Papers Count:16

In this paper to study of the behavior of individuals in the virtual space these questions are asked: what effect the virtual space of the chat rooms, as an anonymous text-based space, has on the ways of self-expressions of the participants? In a other words, could this kind of relation lead to self- disclosure and friendly behaviors between the participants? To answer the question by deploying theory of social information processing of "Joseph Walter" a theoretical model has been framed from which four hypotheses have been extracted. To evaluate these hypotheses the survey using online questionnaire has been used. The results show that the physical absence of participants not only cannot prevent them to interact emotional and social messages but also those experienced ones by using the skill necessary learn how to change the verbal and non-verbal signs in face to face interaction to the text and to communicate their personal and emotional traits. Similarly, the participants simultaneously learn disclose and play their role and make it as the best opportunity to state what they can't state in the real world.

In this article the image of woman is examined in works of Rakhshan Bani Etemad, one of important female directors of Iranian cinema. The examination of the role of director's gender in representation of women and their issues is one of this article's aspects which can throw some light on studies of women representation in media.In this article, taking the theoretical framework of feminist media studies, the movies made by this director are analysed using content analysis and semiotics. Moreover, in order to examine the effect of gender on the representation of women, a brief scetch is made on the representation of women in Iranian cinema in general, for which documentary method is used.The movies examined in this article are those released for public. In this study, in contrast to the previous ones, gender is examined as a factor which along with social conditions affects the way social groups, like women are represented. This shows that women can be a more effective factor in proposing women issues which regardless of social conditions, will closely represent women in order to state their issues and demands.

This paper specifically focuses on heyatha which are known as "new style" in maddahi and azadari in the recent decades as well as on their audience. The theoretical foundation of the research is used from anthropological interpretive methodology of c1iford Girtz. Heyatha could be seen as religious crowd possessing urban features. The range of their audience is far more various than those of mosques. The second half of the 1990s decade experienced the tremendous expanding of" new style" heyatha and their content in the urban space as well as acute youths attitude to them. In general, today this new discourse has dominated azadari in the urban space particularly the subordinate youths centers. The Karbala .discourse is the most important religious discourse which provides them with the main religious framework to make sense Shiite and its ritual and action based on this sense.

This paper examines the relationships between media (in particular television) and football in Iran. This paper differentiates the media representation of football from the reality of football. An attempt has been made to provide an account of mediaised narrative of football created by Iranian media and televisions. To do so, the Iranian media discourse of football has been considered and examined as part of the grand official discourse of the state and it is demonstrated how the state discourse determines the football representation in the media. To provide a theoretical and comparative ground, first I have examined what is football and how it should be socially approached? Then, the socio-historical context of football is explained and socio-political functions of football for the media are examined. Then, the theoretical challenges between football as a modem and secular sport with the Islamic Republic of Iran as a religious and tradition state are explained. Then, I have argued why despite huge political and theoretical gap and contraction between the state and football are massively broadcasting and investing on football. Then, I have described how Iranian state media represent footballers, football fans, spectators, stadiums, coaches, football clubs, and matches. At the end, some research agenda are suggested.

This article is to study the relevance of "Community Radio" and "Social solidarity" in Iran. Having stated the problem, this paper introduces the community as an important concept in the current social evolutions. Then, it describes Community Radio, its features, and functions. The theoretical framework depicts the role of Community Radio in shaping Social Solidarity in Iran. It concludes that the Social Solidarity is weak and is faced with problems. It also concludes that Community Radio could improve Social Solidarity. It states that Iran as a developing and plural country with some specific relations needs to reinforce its middle community as the intermediary groups so that promote generality rather particularity.

Commercial ads, which are considered as one of the main and inseparable parts of audiovisual media as well as print one, could have significant and multiple functions. On the one hand they introduce the new product and goods; on the other hand, they spark off consumer and consumerism. Representation depicted in the commercial ads has always been in the center of media studies 'focus as well as the way of reprinting social class and life style in them. The present research has been conducted through content analysis. The ads have been selected among those broadcasted before and in the middle of highly-desired and highly-viewed soap operas (March to September 2005) and the size of sample is 110.

It seems that there is no group hasn't been victimized through confused, distorted, and autocratic picture. Thus, this study is to explore the picture presented in written works concerning Kurds. This study reveals that orientalist stereo types have been deployed once add ressing Kurds.

Everyday life is one of the building blocks of cultural studies. Many theorists have been trying to study the problems of everyday life critically the area which has been neglected by the academic macro-micro sociologies. Succeeding schools of the 20th Century Philosophies and Sociologies criticize the previous ones for being too abstract. Trying to be more concrete the modem schools of thought attempt to reach the bottom rock of people's dealing with the world. This challenge leads to the primacy of the critical study of everyday life in social thought. Critical theorists of everyday life such as Lefebvre insist that studying everyday life requires interdisciplinary theories and methods. One of the main tasks of sociologists is to represent the hidden potentialities of people to them by the help of art. In this way people will hopefully recognize the present conditions of their social world and try to change it and reach a more humane and ethical one. This essay tries to undertake this task by critically interpreting the representations of everyday life in one of the films of the Iranian Cinema. Unruled paper by Nasser Taghvayi.