RELIGION & COMMUNICATION
Year:2012 | Volume:19 | Issue:1 (41)|Papers Count:7

In the first part of this article we have explained the theoretical approaches and presented comparative models of the scope of impact and functional confrontation of the model in the audience's subjective and objective spheres. In the second part we have done a case study of Barbie doll. In the theoretical approach section, as it concerns the impact of the model on the audience, we have dealt with different aspects of the issue at three levels: theoretical, theoretical reductions, and analysis. At the first level of analysis, the major function of the model is "identification" which in its turn extends to three sub-levels at second level of analysis, namely the ideal, good and bad criterion, and lifestyle. From the viewpoint of the distinction between objectivity and subjectivity, the model's character function upon the audience is mentioned at five levels: insight, knowledge, inclination, method, and action. When it comes to contextual and cultural concept, three equal terms, i.e. OSVAH, mythology and pattern are offered with a comparative matrix for defining the functional distinction between the productive approach and characterization in both Islamic and Western viewpoints. In the end, with due regard to the mutual influence of subjectivity and objectivity from the viewpoint of moving from material to mental, and moving from mental to material, it has been attempted to offer a discourse analysis of modeling by relying on the case study of Barbie, in the macro conceptual domain, and show the modeling confrontation of the west with the Islamic civilization, especially the issue of Islam phobia in the aftermath of September 11.

A look at I.R. of Iran’s cultural institutions and organizations, and a survey of their role in shaping the society’s cultural conditions, provide some general and shared characteristics, namely, multiplicity of these organizations, their lack of mission distinction, interference and parallel work in their affairs, lack of coordination in policy making and execution, and lack of a powerful and effective supervisory center. These are the main causes of disharmony in the country’s cultural performance and their aimless expansion with huge budget consumption leading to undesirable the inefficiency of the country’s cultural corpus.Metaphors have been used to facilitate our understanding of different phenomena including different fields of humanities such as management. The present article has in the same manner adopted the metaphor of “cultural system”, after the expression “Solar System”, in order to shed light on the ideal condition the country’s cultural institutions and organizations can have. To answer the basic question, “Is our main problem in the cultural field a lack of a comprehensive cultural management system? ” the research has first tried to make the matter more explicit and provide solutions by gathering evidence from various practical researches done by the Higher Council for Cultural Revolution and the Expediency Council. It then uses the cultural system metaphor by borrowing some major features from the Solar System, in order to elucidate the ideal cultural arrangement that can contribute to organizing cultural centers and institutions of the I.R. of Iran.

"Purgatory" or the interim state in afterlife is a well-known concept which has occupied a place in both the world's conventional cinema, and what is known as the Iranian meaning-oriented movies. The dominant approach to the issue, as a transitional phase in afterlife, is thought to have originated in the Judaistic Christianity or the Judaic-Christian view. This article first offers a genealogy of the approach and a definition of the concept in Judaic-Christian and Islamic doctrine, and then it surveys its impact on some of the prominent Iranian films containing the above theme in the recent decade. The inconsistency of the approach with Shia view is then discussed and the cinema potential for depicting the latter is explained.

What is the relationship between pathological study of experiences the Iranian cyberspace users, and their religious and ethical beliefs? Is it possible to locate a significant relationship between different levels of religiousness, and pathological experiences? On the other hand, is there any relationship between attitudes to cyber harm (crime and abnormality) and level of religiousness? Is there a significant relationship among pathological experienceology, attitude-metrics on harm, and level of religiousness of cyberspace users? These are questions which will be discussed in this article. To answer these questions, we need to conceptualize a dual-space approach to virtual harm.Therefore, we will first explain the dual space paradigm and, within this paradigm, the transmission of physical harm to cyber harm will be considered. Then, data from an online explorative questionnaire will be studied to scrutinize pathological experienceology, pathological attitude-metrics, and level of religiousness. Then the relationship between (1) level of religiousness and pathological experienceology and (2) level of religiousness and pathological attitude-metrics will be studied. We will conclude by presenting a pattern for the three abovementioned variables before depicting a road map among them.Based on the method for path analysis and rationale of the explorative study, this map could be understood as an explorative path analysis or map for explorative path.

A communicative analysis of seminary students’ weblogging means that each weblog is examined in four dimensions: the sender, the message, the media and the audience. Model weblogs are selected through targeted sampling after identifying the students’ various weblogs usually in seven categories, namely political, social, literary, diary, thought, theological, and others, and by considering their at least four-year-long activity and updated status. Following the “Normative Model of Islamic Cyber Media” designed to analyze religious websites, hence unsuitable for weblogs, we have offered a new model for our study that consists of 21 constituents.In selecting intra-model constituents, items such as correspondence with the four communicative dimensions, comprehensiveness and the necessary proportion for the communicative analysis of weblogs were taken into account.Subsequently, each of the sample weblogs was analyzed based on the suggested model. The results showed the following characteristics: the mentioning of personal and professional identities in most students’ weblogs, different models of weblogging among male and female students, and reformist students’ utilization of the two- stage process model. In the end, some suggestions are made for more efficient weblogging. These are: group weblogging, intermediate update, validation, specification, etc.

In the pre- virtual world which took about two milleniums, “God” was assumed as the cornerstone of traditional theology especially in Abrahamic religions i.e. Judaism, Christianity and Islam.But now in the virtual world provided by the internet, we are witnessing a new situation that could be called “Media –oriented religion” or “popularization of religion”. The outcome is, therefore, “virtual theology”, the essence of which is “virtual God”. This phenomenon is regretfully neglected in sociological, cultural, and media studies of religion. This article first undertakes a theoretical review of “virtual theology and God,” and then makes a qualitative analysis of the “virtual representation of God” in Persian weblogs, especially blogfa. It is shown that in comparison with traditional media, the western academia and Islamic seminaries in pre- virtual world, these weblogs have managed to challenge the traditional notion of God and theology, due to their unique virtual and media – based status. They have launched, instead a “textual hegemony” and a “popularized God”. This challenge, apart from our for or against judgment and its threatening or opportunity providing nature vis - a - vis the traditional religiousness in the third millennium, has afforded an intriguing subject for the sociology of religion, especially by focusing on the trio: “sociology of religious weblogs”, “cultural studies of virtually popularized religion” and “studies of the religious media”, in Iran.

Various lists of news values in communication have been offered since 1960. This article, next to a comparative and analytical explanation of those lists in the recent five decades, presents the authors, own selected list which embodies all the previous ones.Then it is shown that the news values issues in both the practical domain of communication i.e the media, and its scientific domain, are based on the uses and gratification theory when it comes to knowledge of the audience. The philosophical foundations of gratification theory which is in flounced by humanistic and capitalistic views are also explained. There is a final emphasis on the need of adopting a critical and cautious view when selecting practical communication models such as news values in our Islamic society due to the predominance of modernist world views.