Religion, Media Use, and Political Attitude in Iran: Exploring the Complex Relationships

• In Event: ICA Interactive Paper/Poster Session II
  In Interactive Paper Session: Political Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

The electoral victory of Hassan Rouhani in 2013, and the success of the nuclear deal in 2015 mark an era of socio-political transition and newfound optimism in Iran. Evidence about how Iranians approach these important shifts, attitudes about their country, its future and its priorities remains largely unexplored. Furthermore, it is not clear what factors affect Iranian citizens’ attitudes on these issues, nor the role media plays in shaping political attitudes, values, and perceptions. Towards filling these gaps, we conducted a field study among a systematically recruited sample of Iranian citizens. Our analysis reveals that use of non-state regulated sources such as satellite TV and online news websites have a negative impact on citizen attitudes about Iran. In contrast, relying more on state media contributes to more satisfaction with the status quo in Iran. Finally, we used partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to identify the relationships between sources of information, religiosity and attitudes about Iran. The results of our exploratory SEM-PLS analysis suggest that religiosity is the strongest predictor of attitudes about Iran and it also has a full mediating effect between what information sources Iranians use and optimism about Iran’s future.

Authors

• Emad Khazraee, Kent State U

• Briar Smith, U of Pennsylvania

• Magdalena Wojcieszak, University of California, Davis