Iranian Media: The Paradox of Modernity [Paperback]

The post-revolutionary state in Iran has tried to amalgamate Sharia with electricity and modernity with what it considers as Islam. While sympathetic to private capital, through quasi anti-capitalist politics, the state began to restrict market-relations, confiscate major assets of sections of the Iranian bourgeoisie, and nationalize major aspects of Irans industry, including its communications system. Since the end of war with Iraq and the start of the process of reconstruction, market-driven development and economic policies have been key aims of the state.

List of Tables.  Preface.  Acknowledgments.  Introduction.  1. Religion, State and Culture: Beyond Islamic Exceptionalism  2. Is there an Islamic Communication Theory?  3. Iranian Press: The Paradox of Modernity  4. Emerging Public Spheres and the Limits of the Press  5. Press, State and Civil Society: Illusions and Realities  6. Media Policy under the Islamic Republic: Rights, Institutional Interests and Control  7. The Politics of Broadcasting: Continuity and Change, Expansion and Control  8. Womens Press and Gendered Nature of the Public Sphere.  Conclusion.  Notes.  Bibliography.  Index

This book provides an overview of the expansion of the Iranian communication system, examining the political economy of this process and arguing that the nature of Iranian media in general and the press in particular, cannot be understood simply in terms of Islamic ideology or the false dichotomy of modernity versus tradition.

Gholam Khiabany teaches in the Department of Applied Social Sciences, London Metropolitan University, and is the author (with Annabelle Sreberny) of Blogestan: The Internet and Politics inlƒ-