Socio-cultural and socio-political implications of VCRs in Iran : public discourses, state policies, and cultivation of attitudes

This study looks at the implications of Video Cassette Recorders in Iran at national and individual levels. By 'contextualising' the medium, the audiences, the text, and relevant state policies within the dynamic environment of post-revolutionary Iran, the research questions the VCRs definition, functions, and impacts. The first part describes and explains issues related to the VCRs' critical existence in Iran: factors of VCRs' penetration; government reaction toward its increasing penetration; the complex reasons behind the banishment of video sets and video clubs in 1983; consequences of the 1983 prohibition policy; VCRs' underground life in Iran between 1983-1993; the dominant anti-VCR discourse of 1983-1993 period; the effects of the VCR on other social organisations and institutions and in particular its impact on cinema and broadcast media; the debates which led to VCRs' legalisation in 1993; and development of a centralised organisation of VCR since 1994.;The second part at the familial and individual level questions the 'effects' of VCRs on specific attitudes, expectations, and behaviour of the Iranian youth. For this purpose the role of some VCR-related (e.g. ownership, viewing intensity, content preferences, audience activity, and parental control) as well as non-VCR-related factors (i.e. class, gender, and age) in the (trans)formation of traditional/non-traditional attitudes are studied.;This survey tests hypotheses relate to: the VCR's class-based diffusion in Iran; its use patterns by the audiences; its impact on the audiences' uses of national media; the impact of length of VCR ownership; the role of the video sets and cassettes in cultivation of (selected non-traditional) attitudes; cultivation relativity across various age and gender groups and classes; and the role of preferred content types, audience activities as well as parental control methods on the amount of cultivation.