Domestication of global news in the Iranian public sphere : the trial of 'Alexei Navalny' in Iranian legacy and social media
Sedaghat, Hamide (2023)
2023
Master's Programme in Global Society
Yhteiskuntatieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Social Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2023-01-13
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202212018800
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202212018800
Tiivistelmä
The aim of this thesis is to study how global news is domesticated in countries with different social and political atmospheres than those that are typically studied. This case study examines how news of the poisoning and detention of Alexei Navalny is domesticated in Iranian public sphere with the intent of discerning how a foreign framework is transformed into local or national flavors that are more relatable, understandable, and suitable for consumption by a particular audience.
I consider the case of Navalny from the perspective of domestication theory and make a comparison between the domestication strategies of legacy and social media. My findings address the research gap that exists on the domestication of global news in countries with low levels of freedom of expression. It is also a starting point for future research on the domestication of global news in social media.
For this research, my empirical data consists of all original news and reports published in my choses sources within three weeks after each event of Navalny's poisoning and detention. The sources of this data include news agencies as samples of legacy media and Persian language tweets on Twitter as the social media. Critical discourse analysis is used as a methodological approach to analyze the news and tweets published about Navalny’s story. The data analysis is inductive and makes use of grounded theory as an analytical tool.
The analysis revealed eight discourses that are used in Iranian public sphere to naturalize Navalny's news for Iranian audiences. These discourses are territorial integrity, Iran nuclear negotiations, criticizing Iran’s political atmosphere, domestic and foreign policies, human rights, Russian responsibility, criticizing Iranian opposition performance, sanctions, and the Nord Stream gas pipeline project. Each discourse frames the issue in a different way such that Navalny’s story became nationally relevant to Iranian audiences. Furthermore, while some discourses are explained exclusively in legacy media or exclusively in social media, other discourses appeared in both legacy and social media.
The results of the study demonstrate that legacy media must consider national interests or editorial policies when naturalizing a global story in the context of Iranian public sphere; legacy media, as a part of that public sphere, is subject to many official controls and reinforce banal nationalism. Social media, on the other hand, is relatively free from these strict constraints and is more critical of state structures. On social media, global news appears to be domesticated to reflect the views and values of the local people, rather than the local government.
I consider the case of Navalny from the perspective of domestication theory and make a comparison between the domestication strategies of legacy and social media. My findings address the research gap that exists on the domestication of global news in countries with low levels of freedom of expression. It is also a starting point for future research on the domestication of global news in social media.
For this research, my empirical data consists of all original news and reports published in my choses sources within three weeks after each event of Navalny's poisoning and detention. The sources of this data include news agencies as samples of legacy media and Persian language tweets on Twitter as the social media. Critical discourse analysis is used as a methodological approach to analyze the news and tweets published about Navalny’s story. The data analysis is inductive and makes use of grounded theory as an analytical tool.
The analysis revealed eight discourses that are used in Iranian public sphere to naturalize Navalny's news for Iranian audiences. These discourses are territorial integrity, Iran nuclear negotiations, criticizing Iran’s political atmosphere, domestic and foreign policies, human rights, Russian responsibility, criticizing Iranian opposition performance, sanctions, and the Nord Stream gas pipeline project. Each discourse frames the issue in a different way such that Navalny’s story became nationally relevant to Iranian audiences. Furthermore, while some discourses are explained exclusively in legacy media or exclusively in social media, other discourses appeared in both legacy and social media.
The results of the study demonstrate that legacy media must consider national interests or editorial policies when naturalizing a global story in the context of Iranian public sphere; legacy media, as a part of that public sphere, is subject to many official controls and reinforce banal nationalism. Social media, on the other hand, is relatively free from these strict constraints and is more critical of state structures. On social media, global news appears to be domesticated to reflect the views and values of the local people, rather than the local government.