Journal of Sociological Review

Journal of Sociological Review

News Media in the Social Networks Era: Polarization and Changing Nature of News Reporting (Semiotic Analysis of the BBC Farsi Instagram Page)

Document Type : علمی وپزوهشی

Authors
Mohammad Mollaabbasi
Saber Jafari kafiabadi
Assistant Professor in Sociology Department, Allameh Tabatabayi University, Tehran, Iran
10.22059/jsr.2022.88956
Abstract
In recent years, social networks have become the main place for the exchange of news and information and have marginalized traditional news media. Traditional media have tried to withstand these developments by changing their news policies and maintain their authority and importance. In this direction, some controversial characteristics of the social networks space, and the issue of polarization at the top of them, are more visible in the field of news media than in the past. In this research, an attempt has been made to investigate the news coverage of one of the most important media active in the Persian-language virtual space, that is, BBC Farsi's Instagram page, with a preliminary theoretical preparation to measure the issue of polarization in the field of news media. For this purpose, we have semiotically analyzed 1200 photos and news headlines that have been published in this media for twenty days. The obtained results show that more than 74% of all the news that BBC Persian has published about Iran during this period contain polarizing elements.
Keywords
the principle of dispersion
the principle of cohesion
the principle of extremes
the principle of integration
polarization
BBC Farsi
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Journal of Sociological Review
Volume 29, Issue 1
June 2022
Pages 41-76