Indicators of attention to hijab in the media – Mehr news agency Iran and world’s news

Mehr News Agency – Religion and Thought Group – Mustafa Shakri: All the experts and guardians of the hijab and chastity debate in the country agree that the most important influencing factor in this field that can solve the challenges and problems is the issue of public culture, and the problem of not wearing the hijab or loose hijab should be solved with a cultural method.

Undoubtedly, one of the most important cultural institutions of the country is radio and television, which has a wide range of audiences throughout the country and can play an irreplaceable role in the field of culture and discourse creation. Although this position has been challenged by the development of social networks and interactive media, the national media still has a wide range in the field of messaging.

After mentioning these preliminaries, it is appropriate to raise the question whether the national media has been able to fulfill its duties in the field of chastity and hijab during the past four decades, and whether it basically has a comprehensive plan in this area or not? In this regard, we had a conversation with Hojjat al-Islam Masoud Esmaili, a member of the academic board of the Islamic Culture and Thought Research Institute, the result of which you can read below;

* Please What capacities does the national media have in the field of chastity and hijab and to what extent has it been able to exploit it?

The field of influence of national media is national and public culture, which is extremely important. It can be said that the main macrolevel of culture, which is the closest field to culture itself, is national culture, whose temporal objectivity is called general culture. National media, due to the size of its target society and its national reach, is one of the most important sources of culture, as far as it is possible to form many Components Let’s attribute general culture to it. Therefore, the ideal national media is a media that has the greatest influence in the field of culture, which can seriously affect and even transform the field of national and public culture.

Today’s media are two-way and interactive media, and because of this feature, from a technological point of view, classic radio and television cannot be considered to have a serious impact on the audience. Therefore, when we talk about national media, in the ideal form, we mean a media including the traditional form of radio and television, but this same traditional media, with some measures and arrangements, can be a part of a larger media that has components Such as radio, television, social networks, information bases, internet sites, computer and online games.

The speed and abundance of information replaces correspondence with reality

Basically, the philosophy of information has completely changed in the postmodern era, and the more we as philosophers, scientists and realists believe that the most important component in the exchange of information is realism or conformity to reality, our general audience, for any reason, is looking for more. It is other components and, for example, it prefers the speed, multiplicity and variety of information over its truth. In such a situation, truth means the confirmation of the majority of a data by the volume of many messages, or at least if the meaning of truth is not such, it will be its criterion. Adherence to epistemic truth is a commitment that the media itself has as a content producer; But in terms of presentation to the audience, you cannot expect to attract the audience’s opinion and have the maximum effect by simply sticking to the facts; Although it can be emphasized again that this adherence is necessary and necessary, but it is not enough.

Content in new and effective media, according to the past conditions, should be content intersubjective And it should be based on collective common sense and far from extremes, and the wider the scope of the media audience, this content should also be the moderate result of more strains. This important point also has a significant impact on the content orientation of a national media, considering its coverage of all important groups among the audience of a country.

It should be noted that the components and conditions mentioned in the national media can be reservation All Iranian Islamic religious, historical and identity requirements should be observed, and due to the adherence of the majority of the audience of such a media to such requirements, observing these components cannot be seen as conflicting with preserving the previous principles and teachings. All the mentioned conditions are actually forms of secondary interpretation of the message that do not change the content of the message and are formats for its presentation.

According to these points, the national media in its ideal state will be a media that, in the category of chastity and hijab, presents the message arising from the Islamic-Iranian identity in the widest circle of its inclusion to the Iranian audience and in the field of national and public culture. Therefore, it uses all the technological capacities for maximum interaction with the audience and the fastest, most, most diverse, the most recent And it offers the most comprehensive content in this field. Of course, in this regard, the greatest reliance on the rich cultural, literary and religious heritage of the natives will help the media to adhere to the originality and richness of the messages and attract the audience.

Also, the extraordinary importance of the audience and their understanding of such categories and how to influence the audience, points out the need for a broad and permanent field audience analysis for the national media. Considering these points and taking into account the great importance of cultural categories in our society, the national media should specifically benefit from an intellectual and operational forum consisting of very diverse expertise for these types of categories, whose task is to provide the maximum of those points and discussions. which will be said for the national media and the media management must adjust or adjust all the data and content, programs and people involved in production and supply with the output of that assembly.

The distance between the national media and the ideal situation in the field of chastity and hijab

What has happened in the national media regarding important categories such as chastity and hijab in our society so far is far from the ideal situation that I described. In the meantime, although the great efforts of the managers and people involved in the national media are evident, it has not had much influence in the society due to the non-observance of the points and discussions that were presented. Now, in the field of public culture, we are witnessing a kind of cultural and identity divergence among the strata or masses of the society, which should have been the main field of action of the national media; But we have seen that this group of potential audiences of the national media basically do not pay attention to this media and can easily ignore the messages and contents and programs of the national media, which is one of the main reasons for such a situation, the non-fulfillment of the aforementioned principles and conditions.

The basic weakness of the national media, like most of the centers and organizations involved in culture in this regard, is the lack of attention to creating a public discourse about hijab and penetrating the category of hijab in the ideological, value and emotional layers of the general audience.

Of course, now the topic of hijab and chastity is widely discussed in the national media, but without a deep and accurate audience analysis, without two-way interaction with the audience, without a comprehensive approach to all the existing groups in the society, without relying on the rich scientific, literary and historical heritage. Hereof; These programs are mostly designed and presented with a general form and context of a radio or television meeting and discussion without diversity and innovation and without reflecting completely different and opposing views; The contents are often set from a scientific and intellectual spectrum without using different literary and scientific contents in the national culture; The up-to-dateness of the programs and the use of the latest methods and forms of message presentation, and even the use of the latest global information in this regard, are missing in the regulation of programs and contents, and on the other hand, the progress and presentation of such programs is slow. Role modeling is limited to presenters or special guests in programs, and the objectivity of society is often neglected as the main scene of role modeling. Serious and extensive use of virtual space and messaging networks in this regard is done at least, which results in the loss of a huge range of audiences.

* What indicators should the national media consider in order to have a positive impact in the field of hijab?

According to the aforementioned topics, the important indicators in order to have a positive effect in the field of hijab can be divided into two categories: basic and executive indicators. Each of these two categories can be divided into two groups are which we will explain below;

One; The basic indicators are related to the general principles of media programs in the category of hijab and chastity. These indicators can be divided into two ideological and field groups are; In intellectual indicators, it is necessary and essential to extract Iranian Islamic thought and the model of Iranian Muslim women. This model should be documented according to our religious and national heritage, and there should be no doubt in its acceptance by the majority of people of religious science and national culture, experts, as well as the heads of the country’s governance. Obtaining such a basis and obtaining its universal acceptance can be realized in various ways, which there is no space to repeat here. In the field-based indicators, the theoretical and practical positions of the general society regarding the category of hijab should be extracted and classified, and in the case of each class, an accurate audience analysis should be done, and in this way, the indicators related to each class’s feelings and emotions, interests, Reasons, views, etc. should be determined.

two; Executive indicators can be divided into two groups of content and form indicators. In the group of content indicators, intellectual foundations are transformed into programmatic and operational contents according to the field foundations. Paying attention to the rich religious and national heritage in this transformation, as well as a serious focus on the target audience, is very essential. At this level, after the formation of the primary content, the content subjects should also be adjusted according to the interests of the audience, and thus, the contents determination finds its finality. In short, the greatest effort should be made to attract and fit the audience in the stage of setting and determining the content itself. Also, in the group of form indicators that are related to the way and form of content presentation in the form of different programs, it is necessary and essential to pay attention to another type of audience research axis that is more related to the emotional aspects and interests of the audience. In general, the most attention is paid to audience knowledge in executive indicators.

*How do you evaluate the positive and negative aspects of the performance of the national media in this area over the past years?

Trying to present the positive points and beauty of chastity and hijab and providing models in this field has been one of the positive points of the national media’s performance in this field. But this amount is not enough at all. In the case of categories such as that the subject comes back to cultural values ​​and the type of attitude towards it, creating a discourse and creating a deep level of thought and feelings in that regard should be one of the main goals of national media activities. In fact, in most of the deep cultural categories in our country, the lack of the aforementioned goal setting and planning to achieve it is evident, and the main damage in this type of categories is from this area. Therefore, the basic weakness of the national media, like most of the centers and organizations involved in culture in this regard, is the lack of attention to creating a public discourse about hijab and penetrating the category of hijab in the ideological, value and emotional layers of the general audience, which in the past existed in the audience. Culture leads to self-control in categories such as hijab; But today, various factors have joined hands to prevent such a layer from forming or disappearing. In order to build discourse and create deep layers of cultural categories, it is very necessary and necessary to pay attention to all the indicators mentioned in the aforementioned topics.

* Apart from the production of the program, what equipment does the media need in the society? For example, one of these tools seems to be social trust in the media message.

The most important tools for the effect of new media on the audience are the speed, variety and attractiveness of the original content and the way it is presented and extensive interaction with the audience. Of course, trust is one of the necessary and important axes in any media; But it seems that more than building trust, what is seriously considered in the media today is creating a space for the audience to see themselves psychologically in need or at least very dependent on the media and cannot give it up. Of course, the amount of media influence with such criteria is doubled if there is trust. Unfortunately, most of the media in our country, including the national media, do not have such equipment, and it is clear that building trust in such an atmosphere, although it is necessary, will not produce the necessary results.

* Summarize at the end.

In summing up this topic, it seems that paying attention to the criteria of today’s media such as speed, plurality, diversity and attractiveness of the message, broad audience knowledge and serious attention to it in setting the content and form of the message and programs, and serious targeting in the direction of creating public discourse and creating deep layers of thought Value and emotion in the audience is one of the serious needs of the national media.