Mass communication in the construction of power in pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary Iran

Abstract

This dissertation investigates mass communication in the construction of power in modern Iran. It seeks insight into hegemonic power in the pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary state by examining establishment policies and communication behaviors with regards to a central, but continuously contested apparatus of state power projection and formulation, that is, mass communication.

Adopting John Thompson’s conception of ideology and mass communication and Antonio Gramsci’s conception of hegemony, this study examines periods in Iranian history in which the state monopoly over the mass communication industry was challenged by the popularization of a new mass communication technology.

My primary thesis is an application of Thompson’s thesis on mass communication in ideology transmission. It argues that by maintaining a monopoly on a major site of ideology transmission in Iranian society—mass communication—the post-revolutionary establishment has sought to ensure the primacy of its ideology among all others in circulation. A subsidiary thesis is that mass mediated political myth, as conceived by Roland Barthes and George Sorel, and mass mediated political spectacle, as conceived by Murray Edelman, serve to support and undermine hegemonic power as source of popular legitimacy.

Date of Award	30 Nov 2016
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of St Andrews
Supervisor	Ali Massoud Ansari (Supervisor)