RELIGION & COMMUNICATION
Year:2013 | Volume:20 | Issue:1 (43) |Papers Count:6

Once established, the Islamic Republic system recognized a specific dress code conforming with the overall Islamic lifestyle as a public issue, hence endeavoring to codify and promote the Islamic dress in both official and public domains. Among the related regulations, the Law on Organizing Costume and Fashion passed by Majlis is the first of its kind that deals with the issue both directly and indirectly.In this article, by using a quality method (consulting documents and interviewing) the process of related policymaking has been examined on the basis of a process model. The results obtained through the above- mentioned method consisting of defining the problem, finding the solution, decision- making, execution and evaluation, show that a large part of the law , either partially or totally, hasn' t been implemented yet. In addition, this law next to its strong points such as positive and encouraging approach and mobilizing all related organizations has also some weak points, namely lacking in a supraorganizational structure for the responsible team and sufficient budjet, and overlooking the private sector which can hinder the timely implementation of the law.

The main purpose of this study is to determine the relation between the rate of media use and female students’ tendency to Hijab in Buali Sina University in 2012-2013 academic year. A sample of 354 people was selected from the statistical population of size 4436, with stratified-random sampling method. The method of this study was descriptive and of correlation type. In order to evaluate the rate of media use and tendency to Hijab, structured questionnaires were used. The validity of questionnaire was assured by content-related validity method; and the reliability was tested and assured by Cronbach's alpha, for which we got 0.93 for trend to Hijab questionnaire, and 0.85 for mediums questionnaire. For data analysis, we took advantage of descriptive statistics methods (including percentage, abundance and average,) and inferential statistics (including Pearson Correlation and compound regression).The obtained results from data analysis showed that the rate of students’ tendency toward Hijab could be predicted in accordance with that of using Internet, mobile phones and satellite TVs and there is a negative and meaningful relation between these three and tendency toward Hijab. That is to say, the higher the rate of using each of these media, the less tendency exists toward Hijab.

Cyberspace has provided new cultural spaces for public discourses through language. In addition to traditional media, news weblogs as one of the new cultural spaces are new actors in the news process, and in many cases they have become an important source of news for most people. These weblogs as new forms of public communication and representation in the West, particularly in the United States, have played a major role in representing the 'other' and shaping the views of many ordinary Americans on Islam, and more specifically Muslims.The aim of this paper is to identify and analyze orientalist stereotypes of Muslims in American news blogs by employing the critical theory framework and cluster analysis. Analysis of case study demonstrated that their display of Muslims and Islam for the public are negative and when referring to Muslims, they frequently use implicit or explicit orientalist stereotypes of Muslims in their blogs that are rooted in American dominant values and changes have not yet happened in accordance with special features of cyberspace and weblogs. Hence, historical orientalist stereotypes of Muslims in mainstream western media have been revived and reinforced in American news blogs. This indicates the new way of western dominance over the East.

An important issue in the communication field is the diffusion of a certain new thought, value, fashion, etc. in societies. Innovation (especially in its intellectual and cultural senses) and the manner of its diffusion can be traced and discussed according to the Holy Quran under issues such as Prophets' propagation traditions and the Quranic method of convincing audiences. Here we have adopted Rogers's and Shoemaker's theory (diffusion of innovations) as the conceptual framework. The question is how the Quran qualify its divine message, i.e. Islam, so it could be accepted by people. What desirable qualities should the change factor have from the Islamic perspective? Which element would be more effective on accepting innovation, fear or reward? Is there any difference between the preliminary stage of introducing innovations and its relative stabilization? To answer these we have used quantity content analysis and topic-based interpretation of the Quran. The results refer to the desired features of innovation, namely correctness, truthfulness, conformity with needs and characteristics of target society, comprehensiveness and relative perfection, facility of use, … and those of the change factor, namely benevolence, compassion, expert orientation, reliability and acceptability, observance of ethical norms in convincing individuals,… Finally when it concerns the method of convincing people, Islam gives prominence to punishment, fear and mentioning the disadvantages of ignoring innovation rather than rewards.

In recent decades various films have been produced in the Iranian cinema with the theme of the relation between people and the clergy, among which we can mention Under the Moonlight, The Newt, and Gold and Copper. Despite their differences, these films belong to a common discourse. This article is after a new categorization of clergy-related signifiers in a network of concepts/ signifiers (people, devotions, ethics, God's path, serving people,…) which though having political concerns, it seeks it through mixing with masses of people. This implies clergy- people/ politicians type of relationship instead of clergy/politicians duality, in which the third dimension is deliberately hidden. Therefore, it could be mentioned that the dominant discourse in these films signify a certain social interaction and convergence of the clergy with people. Here the clergy attempts to reconstruct its traditional role in the civil society of modern world while it never directly raises this question why it has been standing aloof from the traditional/religious environment. In other words, this type of films declines mentioning directly the element of politics (power), and this is performing its directional role as an "absent" signifier. This article first uses an intertextual reading to extract the discourse elements of "restoring religious values in modern society" with its classification type. Then it tries to discuss the kind of problems that the clergy gets involved with when facing the Iranian society of the recent decade.

Living in modern era necessitates dramatic changes for humans to attain their goals and communication plays a major role in this regard. Communication is a process of verbal or non- verbal transmission of messages that happens either consciously or unconsciously. Each obviously has its own delicacies which determine the direction, and in the Holy Quran there are some hints about non- verbal communication by emphasizing the importance of one's appearance in social and interpersonal relations. Other mentioned characteristics are unpretentious stride, cheerful disposition and smiling face, pleasant tone of voice, etc. In actuality, the importance of body language and its components such as facial expression and posture makes us pay more attention to our behavior. This research intends to examine the role of non- verbal communication in religious teachings through an analytical/ descriptive method.