GLOBAL MEDIA JOURNAL
Year:2016 | Volume:10 | Issue:2|Papers Count:7

Introduction and statement of the problem: New technologies and the social networks have provided an increasingly facilitated communication among a fast-growing number of people across borders (Crystal, 2004; Ishii, 2011). Some experts believe that, as an inevitable consequence, they have brought about, and continue to do so, some cultural, sociological and political changes (e. g., Jiang, 2000). Meanwhile, language is one of the main affected areas as a result of such a vast use of social networks. Local and native languages are affected by English language dominating social media in an apparently alarming rate, requiring close observation and possible intervention policies. Persian Language is not an exception, yet it is a more susceptible one due to an enormous number of citizens using and joining the social media applications. This study is an attempt to examine the phenomenon in the case of words for which there already exists a native equivalent and probably suggest a solution to safeguard Persian language. Theoretical Background: Language change takes place as a result of so many factors. Lexical change, which is one of the dominant changes in language change in general (Trask, 1998), often appears as a result of borrowing and adding new lexical items to the existing lexicon. Borrowing mainly happens due to scientific, social and political reasons. The brand new lexical items mostly appear as a result of scientific developments, while, the words for which a native equivalent already exists, predominantly find a way in the native language for social and political reasons. The social reason refers to the feeling of placing oneself in a higher social status on the part of people using the borrowed words (Lev-Ari & Peperkamp, 2014). According to Khumalo (2004), in language contact studies, languages are presumed to come into contact with each other. In actual fact, it is always the speakers of the languages who are in contact. Their attitudes towards each other will influence the way they speak. It is, however, convenient for those who study language simply to speak about languages as though they had a life of their own. Contact between people speaking different languages can have a wide variety of outcomes. In some cases only a few words are borrowed, in others whole new languages may be formed. The results of such contact differ according to several factors, including the length and intensity of contact between the groups, the types of social, economic and political relationship between them, the functions which communication between them must serve, and the degree of similarity between the languages they speak. Methodology: The current study aims at investigating the changes occurring in the application of frequently used vocabularies of Persian language by taking users’ age and gender into consideration. For the purpose of this study, a list of 60 most frequently used lexical items in the social media are selected and the English and the Persian equivalents are offered to the participants in the form of a 60-item questionnaire to select the preferred one. The questionnaires were distributed among 1300 Persian speakers and the frequencies were calculated for each lexical item. A total of 124 questionnaires were excluded as they were incomplete or illegible. The data were gathered from 1176 returned questionnaires. The chi-square test was employed for testing the significance of difference between using Persian and English lexical items among the age groups and across gender. Results And Discussion: The data indicated that users of social networks, including both genders, employed English words more than Persian ones. The data revealed that DOWNLOAD, EMAIL, ONLINE and AKS (Ú ˜Ó ) were most frequently used English and Persian lexical items among the males. On the other hand, COPY and MAKHFI (ã Î Ý ی) were the most frequently used items among the females. Infrequent vocabularies in English and Persian were MUTUAL FRIEND, PIC, CHAP ( Ç  ) RAYANAMEH (Ñ Ç یÇ ä Ç ã å ), and BARKHAT (È Ñ Î Ø ), respectively. The findings suggest a change in the linguistic taste of Persian speakers, the reasons of which requires a closer analysis. Conclusion: The results indicated that the recent growth in the use of social networks and the virtual space, among other factors, apparently resulted in more significant use of English vocabularies instead of Persian ones. Such a result turned out to keep among different age groups and across both genders. This issue calls for linguists and sociologists’ attentive attention. Prominent Result: Among a variety of reasons, the new technologies in modern world have represented and thereby promoted new culture and language. The dominance of new culture and English language over the local native culture and Persian language could lead to an increasing corruption in the native Persian language in the long run. It seems necessary to smartly intervene and make an attempt to preserve the Persian language among the native speakers. The intervention seems plausible specifically in the case of those English words for which the native Persian has approximately fully synonymous lexical items.

Introduction and problematic of research: This paper explores discursive features of activation and passivation in Iran's nuclear program based on critical discourse analysis and socio-semantic features mentioned in Van Leeuwen’s theoretical framework (1996). These two features are the most applicable ones in the model. There is no doubt that contemporary mass media are very effective in forming public opinion. Media represent the hidden beliefs, ideologies and discourses. In fact, media make an iconic environment that forms mental images of their audiences about the outside world. In news coverage related to Iran's nuclear program, the authorities try to impose their ideologies through special linguistic structures such as socio-semantic features to influence the general public's thought and the audience's way of understanding social issues related to the program. Theoretical framework: This research is based on the analytical framework of van Leeuwen (1996) and his approach to “the representation of social actors”, i. e., a framework that he offered in order to investigate English language facilities for representing social actors. He (2008, 23-24) argues that instead of using the usual linguistics categories such as passivation or nominalization, one must draw up a socio-semantic inventory by using socio-semantic features in order to be able to develop critical discourse analysis. There are two reasons for doing that. The first, stems from the lack of bi-uniqueness of language, in fact there is no neat fit between sociological and linguistic categories. The second reason is somewhat different and follows the assumption that meanings belong to culture rather than to language and cannot be tied to any special semiotics. This model has two main features and different subcategories. The two main features are exclusion which means excluding the social actor from discourse, and the second one is inclusion which means presence of the social actor in discourse. Each of them has different subcategories, for example suppression is exclusion's subcategory, and activation and passivation are inclusion's subcategories. Methodology: Various studies in critical discourse analysis of media show that news are mostly discourse structured and hidden ideologies are presented by using specific linguistic features in news. Accordingly the aim of this study is to explore modes of reflection of activation and passivation as two discursive features. The paper will also explore the frequency of their usage in a selection of local and international newspaper headlines about Iran’s nuclear program during 2011-2012. Newspaper headlines from two Persian-language newspapers namely Keyhan and Iran and two English-language newspapers such as Guardian and Washington Post were selected through online websites during April 2011 to February 2012. The headlines were categorized and analyzed quantitatively by Excel software, and then analyzed and interpreted qualitatively according to van Leeuwen’s analytical framework (1996). Findings: Some of the findings showed that the two features of activation and passivation were used highly in both local and international newspapers, but the way of using them, especially in foreign newspapers, was based on the ideology they advocated. The findings also showed that there are two new points that were not mentioned by Van Leeuwen. First one was activation through questioning, and the other was positive and negative activation of social actors. Positive and negative activation of social actors in the newspapers represent the ideology they support. So, they try to impose it on the other side by utilizing the features deliberately and intelligently. It has been done by activation of the social actors who supported them in positive actions and in turn, activation of the other side of social actors in negative actions. It is a way to show that they have more power and the other side is affected by their higher power. In local newspapers, Iranian social actors have been activated in positive actions, such as expressing Iran's nuclear achievements and supporting its nuclear program and on the other side, positions who are against Iran's nuclear program have been negatively activated in actions, such as involvement in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists and being the main obstacle to establishing a Middle East free from nuclear weapons. It has been more clearly used in foreign newspapers. Social actors who were in line with the ideology dominated the newspapers have been positively activated in actions such as stopping Iran's nuclear and destructive program and dealing with its incompatibility about its nuclear program. Iranian social actors have been activated negatively in trying to have access to nuclear weapons and become a potential threat to other countries. In quantitative analysis of the data, despite the fact that the percentage of utilizing activation feature in local newspapers is higher than foreign newspapers, but the way of utilizing this feature has been subject of the ideology of media owners. Thus, in the foreign newspapers and in accordance with the ideology they support, in a large percentage of titles, Iran/Iranian politicians have been activated in negative actions and in specific situations such as negotiations with major powers. This was situation in which they were in passive position. This is also visible in local newspapers, though with less intensity. It has been used by using different types of sentences. Indeed, intellectual utilization of the features was led to propose adding two new subcategories of features to this pattern in the form of positive and negative activation by the authors. The authors believe that if the positive and negative activation are considered as two subcategories for the feature of activation in van Leeuwen’s model, it will be added to its efficiency.

Introduction and Problematic of the Research: Her we will use some well-known literary techniques in the critical theories of postmodern novel in order to study novels of the postmodern era. The authors here, select the movie She’s Star and base their analysis on Payandeh's book entitled Postmodern Novel and Film where he claims that “novel and film are two comparable genres” (Payandeh, 2007, 29). As he argues, ” both of these artistic genres have narrative structures and provide the reader/audience with a story or narrative which seems to be an interpretation of reality. He also argues that the comprising elements of these two genres are also similar. . . . ” (Payandeh, 2007: 29-3). She’s Star is novel and a movie written and directed by Fereydoon Jeyrani that has some qualities which distinguish it from the movies made in the modern era. These qualities have given the movie a special position that has made the authors of this study to have a closer look at it. If there is a claim here that She’s Star is just an acceptable and not a perfect example of postmodern film, it is because a postmodern work in its perfect form includes all the multiplex qualities that are found in this type of literary or artistic works. She’s Star deploys some of the major techniques dominant in a postmodern genre such as meta-fiction, vicious circle, metonymy-metaphor polarities, ö author’s presence in the story, paranoia, mixing the genres, and the death of the author (‘s authority). Though not a perfect example, it owns enough postmodern features to make it an interesting piece of work to be scrutinized for analysis and for the discovery of how these qualities have been employed to distinguish it from the works produced in a previous era. Cinema as a visual text, in the sense that poststructuralists such as Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida have depicted, includes techniques that are also traceable in a written text. It is, therefore, not wrong to claim that Intertextuality of Jeyrani’s movie is related to this interconnection between visual and written texts, i. e., the ones that use signifiers as the sole means of their signification. A written script for Cinematic production and the eventual moving picture is therefore not different from the stock words in a novel and they are open to the same kind of scrutiny. Thus, by deploying the devices that are common in postmodern novel, it is possible to analyze a film and bring the contemporary theories of criticism to the help of film studies. It is not, therefore, surprising to find studies as part of the programs offered by the departments of literature and cultural studies. Besides, this paper introduces an analysis of a postmodern Iranian movie in order to pave the way for other critical analyses of the contemporary movies. This analysis makes a connection between film industry and postmodern fiction, demonstrating the technical and philosophical congruity of the two forms of art. Theoretical Framework: In order to study Fereydoon Jeyrani’s She’s Star we employed the postmodern theoretical perspective, in which ideas of such critics as Patricia Waugh, David Lodge, Barry Lewis, and Jean Baudrillard were taken into consideration. Waugh’s ideas about meta-fiction, Lodge and Lewis’s short circuit (vicious circle) and Baudrillard’s ideas of hyper-reality and simulacrum have been some of the parameters by which Jeyrani’s film has been analyzed. Methodology: In this study, the authors have deployed the postmodern theories of fiction in order to elaborate on the postmodern features of the Jeyrani’s movie, She’s Star. By comparing the postmodern critical theories of fiction and applying them to a film, we made an attempt to make a connection between film industry and postmodern fiction, demonstrating the technical and philosophical congruity of the two forms of art. Thus, this research has to answer the following questions in order to reach its Results: 1. What are the postmodern techniques that Jeyrani’s She’s Star gets use of in its depiction of its story line? 2. How will the comparison made between the film and postmodern theories of novel help develop the film industry in Iran? In other words, how can the film producers and directors or film script writers benefit from the critical theories of postmodern fiction? Findings and Discussion: As mentioned earlier, She’s Star deploys some techniques which are very common in the world of postmodern fiction. These techniques will be elaborated in detail. The meta-fictional features are the first quality that will be discussed. Patricia Waugh has designated the postmodern novels as meta-fiction. She believes that “meta-fiction is that kind of fiction or fictional narrative that self-consciously and quite systematically attracts the attention of its reader to its artificiality so as to pose question for the connection between fiction and reality” (Payandeh, 2007, 54). She’s Star uses meta-fictional elements in order to reflect on how the movie focuses on its own artificiality and eventually makes its audience quite aware of the artificiality of life itself erasing the borderline between reality and fiction. The second quality to follow meta-fiction in this research will be what commonly known as vicious circle/short circuit (to use Barry Lewis’s terms) or the presence of the author/film maker inside the story/film. According to him, short circuit in the postmodern fiction happens when both the text and the world are insinuated or when they are vulnerable to the presence of the other in the self when the self and other are indistinguishable. This combination of reality and fiction is made through the presence of the author in the text/film or the presence of real (historical) people inside the fictional world of the story/film. When these two opposing concepts, i. e., reality and fiction, merge with one another, the literal and the metaphoric intertwine (Payandeh, 2004, 104). There are other interesting means by which the authors construct a short circuit in their works and Jeyrani has also been very good in creating it in his fascinating movie. They are the metonymic-metaphoric polarity and baring the devices. There are also other techniques which are examined and scrutinized in detail in this study, such techniques as paranoia, mixing the genres, and the death of the author or his authority.

Introduction and problematic of research: The main purpose of this study is to identify the role of mass media in determining the popularity and authenticity of art works which are open to a variety of interpretations across different countries. As a relative notion, the popularity and authenticity of art works depends on cultural, social, and political strategies and circumstances of the discourse within which it is articulated. In other words, the popularity and authenticity of art works is not an inherent quality but regulated by elite classes who have control over mass media and try to advertise their favorite discourse as the dominant one. It should be noted that media brings a work of art to the canon not necessarily based on aesthetic qualities. Those works of art which have won popularity, authenticity, and labeled as ‘canonical’ in an era may lose their credit in other historical epochs. To put it more specifically, mass media attempt to invest only on those art works which reinforce their favorite discourse. Such a pseudo-objective canonization process can be decoded by using interdisciplinary paradigms including cultural studies and sociology of literature paradigms. Here in this paper, we attempt to identify the main reasons behind the popularity and authenticity of 12 Years a Slave (2013), directed by Steve McQueen, both in America and Iran. Such an interdisciplinary study can help to discern how a work of is assigned different values once articulated within different discourses. Theoretical framework: To explore the popularity of 12 Years a Slave (2013) both in America and Iran, despite the countries’ discordant sociocultural approaches, we utilize two interrelated and complementary theoretical disciplines: cultural studies and sociology of literature. The former paves the way for understanding critical notions like standardization, discrimination, and qualification as the latter concerns the social and cultural factors determining the popularity of works of art. Utilizing the two creates a solid framework to explore the contingency of the popularity and authenticity of art works. The paper uses Neil Campbell and Toby Miller’s ideas related to cultural studies, on the one hand, and Lucien Goldmann’s genetic structuralism, on the other hand, to analyze the notion of ‘popularity’ and ‘authenticity’ in the realm of art in general. Based on this theory, the picture which is declared by mass media as “the most important”, “the best”, or “the greatest” is not necessarily the most artful one; rather it is the picture which is most applicable for reinforcing the dominant discourse of the society. Toby Miller, one of the famous figures in cultural studies believes that this theory is a magnetic field in academia embracing various tendencies of human sciences (Miller 2001). Instead of focusing on canonical works of art, cultural studies devotes time to popular media, subcultures, and ‘ordinary’ and ‘marginal’ social groups. Cultural studies field, according to Neil Campbell, has been promoted by groups on the margins of power, excluded from the mainstream (Campbell 2008). These groups on the margins consist of people of color, women, ethnic and minorities who interrogate and resist the old system of representation and power through their new critical approaches (ibid). They believe in cultural dialogism or “multiculturalism, that is, the belief that a healthy culture is made of many different people with diverse systems of belief and practice (ibid. ). Furthermore, the paper makes use of Lucien Goldmann’s genetic structuralism which delineates the importance of sociocultural norms in informing the popularity and authenticity of art works. Methodology: in spite of being a single aesthetic entity, 12 Years a Slave (2013) is assigned different ideological values both in America and in Iran. In the first step, the paper finds the reasons behind its popularity in Iran, and subsequently sets to find out why it is awarded several Academy Awards despite purporting to be an ‘anti-colonial’ work of art. Finally, we discuss the broadcasting and casting system informing 12 Years a Slave. Findings and Discussion: Some of the findings indicate that mass media are not neutral in authenticating and popularizing works of art. Under the influence of different elements, particularly political ones, a work of art may be labeled as “the best”, or “the great”. The mass media try to justify the “authenticity” of these works, and make them “popular” for both common people and elite groups of a society. These two factors have been analyzed in 12 Years a Slave (2013) directed. In spite of their completely different dominant discourses, both Iran and United States mass media brought the film to their canon. This paper will answer the question on the causes of film popularity and canonicity. The findings show that many factors such as film awards, release dates, and its casting have an important function in labeling the film as “popular”. By evaluating the policy of media in advertising the dominant discourse and implied ideology of the film, we may come to this conclusion that instead of showing the reality, such discourses try to construct the reality, and form the attitude of their audience towards their surrounding phenomena. This dominant political discourse imposes the imaginary borders of “popularity and authenticity” of art works; and since such a discourse is not fixed in different periods of time, it is not possible to put definable borders for artistic “popularity and authenticity”. In the case of 12 Years a Slave, the aesthetic factors of the film are undeniable. The powerful and influential acting in addition to the effective cinematography and the photogenic qualities of the movie in representing Southern farms can be mentioned as the remarkable points of the film that have played an important function in its popularity. However, our findings indicate that we need to emphasize the role of political and media-concerned elements that made the film “popular”.

Introduction and problematic of research: we start our argument with an axiom, i. e., today's world needs timely and accurate information. Accordingly, there is a severe competition in media arena between written media, visual media, audio media and digital media to attract audiences (Zillmann, 200٦ ). The multiplicity of media provides faster access to news and information resources for different manners leading to competition between various media. In such circumstances, newspaper that must pay more managing costs while suffering from less flexibility becomes more vulnerable. Some factors such as being time-consuming, expensiveness of publishing has worsened such problem. Also Managers of some newspapers do not have experience in economic areas and do not know much about how to run a business institution in such a competitive area. Accordingly, they always look for financial assistance from other organizations. Such financial assistances usually lead to being susceptible to influences that affect newspapers and their managing policies. This procedure leads to a distancing of newspapers from their prophecy of informing and transparency and fair criticism in society (Asada, 2007). . . .

Introduction and problematic of research: The main objective of this paper is to determine the performance of new media, and to study their impact on the process of artistic production. The paper also will focus on the way art works are being presented in the new era, using Walter Benjamin approach as one of the contemporary sociological theories. This paper seeks to offer an understanding about the relationship between the nature and the function of digital media, and artistic production in present interactive age. To do so the content analysis method will be used. Nowadays, thanks to its quick exploitation of information, new media is considered as a new successor to former beliefs and rituals, and the wide gap that separated the work from the audience. It is replaced with the amalgamation between the media, the audience and the authors. The main hypothesis of this study is as follows: "It seems that according to the Benjamin theory, today's reproducible art under the impact of new technological media has changed into public, interactive and participatory art ". Accordingly, the present paper aims at answering the following question: do the new media, which provide technological facilities, enable the reproduction of artwork? And if so, is it effective on the interactive, participatory or collaborative process of new art? The paper therefore, tries to answer questions about the nature and characteristics of the new art and new media. Theoretical framework: This study has a theoretical approach borrowed from the ideas of Walter Benjamin, the German philosopher. This theoretical approach is selected because Benjamin offers influential theories concerning the impact of the media on the art. It also offers ideas on popularization of art and mechanical reproduction of artwork. The most important theoretical section in this study engages in addressing artwork theory in the age of mechanical reproduction. Jennings and Dougherty (2008) argued that Benjamin believed that a work of art should create an interaction between man and nature. Benjamin, according to their opinion, believed that technological possibilities of the media have created new features for the work of art, that is away from sacred aura and its habitual ritual and it is closer to the political and social objectives. Schultz (2000) also argues that, according to Benjamin, new art is an authentic, meaningful creation and because of that, the art position has changed from a sanctuary and monopoly position to a position in society and social relations, available to the people and for public. He maintains that according to Benjamin, with the advent of the media, the era of myths is dead. In Benjamin theory, film and photography is considered to be an outstanding example of new media at their own era. This made possible the reproduction of art, and its public share. We have chosen interactive approach of Benjamin to media and arts as a key theoretical framework of this study. Methodology: In the analytical framework of our method, we have considered to reduce those findings that were obtained based on Benjamin's theoretical model case data. In addition, we offered an analysis of Benjamin’s theory using some example cases. Here, we studied the interactive effects of "design on the Moon", and the joint effect of "Ai Weiwei" and "Olafur Eliasson" using the theoretical approach to the ideas of Benjamin. The sample case, that was exhibited in November 2013 in Beijing, China, has shown cooperation, interaction, democracy, the experience of doing things together, public space, contact and telepresence. This also shows that, the new media such as the web has had an effective role in the evolution of the nature of art and its structural change. Findings and Discussion: While studying the research case, we achieved a clear understanding of what Benjamin called the loss of the unity and sanctity of art when public participates in its creation. It is plausible that, with advances in media technology, sacred and inaccessible aura of art much more than before is fading away, and the new art is becoming an available art to the audience, and is interactive and participatory art. Results of the study show that today and through the new media on the web, people around the world without needing to leave their country, and even in political terms, can participate in the process of production of art. Currently, web browsers and accompanying digital features share the ability to reproduce an artwork by sharing it with a lot of users, and this leads to desacralizing public art. The audience of this interactive work is artistic and active partners of Benjamin. The results of this study show that, in modern times, with the possibility of mechanical reproduction of art and its popularization, art has been rescued from confinement to the corner of museums and galleries, and has achieved its social function. New art with the influence of new and digital media has become an interactive art and achieved a more social and more practical nature. Now, countless works of art are not exhibited only in art galleries and public exhibits, but the artist prefers to supply his artworks in partnership with his audiences and visitors and with help of extensive media facilities, such as high-tech computers, virtual sensors, simultaneous playback systems, technologies related to convert senses and digital signage. Today's artist, much less than before, needs to interpret his work, because the audience by interacting with the artist and being engaged in creation of artwork understand its social meaning correctly and without any intermediaries. Today's Artist, with the help of new media technologies does not want to have unidentified and passive audiences, but it tries to have a dynamic and active role in the process of creating and usefulness of a work. The research results also showed that the view of Benjamin in the field of art becoming public and available has been materialized. It also shows that media and art have now reached to some acceptable and interactive conditions. The sample case study showed that the new art, using interactions that is in its nature, and also with the help of new media, can adopt many political and protest applications, and can be used as a means of expressing social and political protests against social discrimination. This it is one of the features of authentic art that Benjamin sought in its free and original term.

Introduction and problematic of research: the increasing development of internet, satellite TV, and digital communicative technologies, in early decades of the 21st century, has provided the possibility of instant communication in various parts of the world (Held & Mc-Grew, 2003: 37). It is now accompanied by formation of virtual space that offers various functions which in turn, contribute to rewriting traditional values, concepts, and beliefs (Boudrillard, 2004: 16). Internet and other communication and information technologies have spread in the world (Friedman, 2008), and paved the way for opinion expression (Suler, 2007). This has become a ground on which most of the users consist of the youth (Bullen & Hare, 2000). Based on Iran's National Bureau Report (2010), the age distribution of about 43. 2 percent of internet users in Iran, ranged between 20 and 29 years and 59. 8 percent of them received higher education. Many researchers have focused on the effects of media on social capital or one of its dimensions. For example, one can refer to studies of Moy (2000), Quan-Haase, and Wellman (2002), Wellman, et al., (2001), Javaheri and Balakhani (2006), Javaheri and Bagheri (2007), Hosseinpour and Motamed-Nezhad (2011), Heydari & Dehghani (2015), Beaudoin (2007). Theoretically, it should also be noted that Putnam (1995, 1996), Coleman (1991, 1994), Lin (1991) and Lin & Ronalds (2001) have paid attention to this issue. This paper rather aims at studying the relationship between social networks usage and social capital of the users with a special emphasis on the case of students at Yasouj University in Iran. Theoretical framework: we first launched a review of relevant theories from which we then developed a synthesis of theories such as that of Putnam (1998), and Coleman (1994) that addressed lowering effect of media on social capital and the McQuail’s theory (1994, 2005) on the effects of media use on the social solidarity. This synthesis formed the theoretical framework of our study from which we extracted some research hypotheses. From Putnam's and Coleman’s theories, some hypotheses about the significant relationship between social capital, on one hand, and membership situation and the rate of activity in social networks, on the other, were drawn. In addition and based on McQuail’s theory, a hypothesis was drawn about the significant difference of social capital regarding the type of usage of social networks. Methodology: Using a survey method, we determined the unit of analysis to be statistical society of students at Yasouj University. The time of survey spanned between 2014 and 2015, from which and based on Lin sampling table (1976), about 400 cases were selected to form the sample size. Then and based on multi-stage random sampling method, samples were selected. To collect data, a structured and semi-structured questionnaire was designed based on Nahapiet's and Ghosal's Scale (1998). After the data were collected, we used SPSS to analyze the data in both descriptive and inferential mode of analysis. Dimensions of social capital were considered to include communicational dimension, structural dimension, and cognitive dimension. Reliability of these dimensions was analyzed separately via Cronbach's Alpha test. The test results for each of these dimensions of social capital consisted of: 0. 90 for relational dimension, 0. 876 for structural dimension, and 0. 865 for cognitive dimension. The test results show that the designed questionnaire for measuring social capital, the main independent variable, and its dimensions all have enough and proper reliability. Findings and Discussion: Some of the findings indicated that there is significant and direct relationship between membership history in web-based social networks and the fluctuation of social capital while there is no significant relationship between the degree of social networks use and social capital. Also, the results indicated that there is no significant difference in social capital of the students, taking their membership situation and usage pattern of social networks into consideration. It should be noted that Iranian society is a society that is experiencing rapid changes in various aspects of life. Yasouj University, as a local university with local students, is also experiencing such changes but a community level. It reflects a community that is passing through traditional ties and changing it into modern communicative relations. In such a situation, expanding the usage of web-based social networks alongside of mass and unrefined materials has created some type of mistrust and uncertainty vis-à-vis the existing social relations. Furthermore, such mass consumption of media contents tends to diminish the role of conscious agent and users. It seems plausible to conclude that such situation, while offers collective and inclusive proactivity, fails to provide a useful ground for an increase in social capital and solidarity of the users.