1. 1
PhD research proposal
By: Mohammad Ali-Azad Samiei
Telemarksvingen 16
0655 Oslo
Phone number: 90101075
Email address: mohamadsali@hotmail.com
LOOKING THROUGH THE MIRROR
How Iranian citizens interpret American news related to Islam and Iran and
the role these interpretations play in the construction of an image of
America among Iranians

2. 2
1- Main objectives and summery of the project
This research project will study the impact of representations of Iran and Islam in American
media on the Iranian population in order to map how Iranians interpret and subsequently use
this information to produce an image of the West and, in particular, the Unites States of
America. Postcolonial studies have traditionally focused on “othering” processes by studying
the different ways that the West has produced its non-western other. This forms a point of
departure for my study. I argue that technological advancements have created a situation
where those represented by the West as the other(s), are able to read and see their own images
at the same time as it is being presented to the people in the West. This enables them to use
western representations of themselves to generate an image of the West as their own “other”.
In other words, a “double-othering” process or mirroring process is taking place. My study
will uncover how these negotiations take place.
2- Background to the project
Since the 1979 revolution, Iran has constantly occupied a contested position in Western media
and reporting on foreign politics. It has become a country to be feared, a “problem” for the
“international community” to solve. National and international media are consumed with
images and commentaries on Iran. Yet, the more we read and hear about Iran, the less we
seem to know about Iran (Semati 2008). Iran’s significance for current political equations in
the Middle East is undisputable because of its position at the world’s energy market, its
adversarial relationship to the United States and the ongoing dispute regarding its alleged
interest in developing nuclear weapon. Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, all successive
American administrations have tried to contain and/or undermine the Islamic Republic of
Iran. Despite these attempts, it is impossible to ignore that Iran seems to position itself as a
major political power in the region (Ansari 2010 and 2006, Takeyh 2006, Ehteshami & Zweiri
2007, Semati 2008). It is far easier to overlook that the Islamic republic and its political and
religious leadership, for the most part, follow a logic that is driven to protect Iran’s overall
strategic and national interests (Semati 2008).
Today, when Iran is on the verge of getting nuclear energy, the urgency to understand Iran
presents itself. Yet, the United States and many other Western countries maintain an official
narrative regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran that presents it as a state ruled by “an

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unelected few” or a handful of “clerical elite”.1
In this context, it is important to critically
examine the Iranian society and the knowledge we produce about it. Iran is far more diverse
and interesting than contemporary western news media portrays it to be. For example, there
are currently over 36 Persian satellite television channels available in Iran, in addition to
countless channels in other languages (Semati 2008, Sreberny & Khiabany 2010).2
The
growth in the use of the internet has been phenomenal and is amongst the fastest growing in
the world (Ibid). There are reportedly around 70,000 active bloggers in Iran (Sreberny &
Khiabany 2010), a number that is constantly increasing. The proliferation of internet cafés has
been extraordinary. Iran has a vibrant newspaper industry in terms of production and
circulation even in the face of state restrictions (Semati 2008).
In my view, media plays an important role in the process of social changes and political
transformations in contemporary Iran, as it did in each of the post-revolutionary stages. The
uses of “small media” during the revolution have been studied and well documented
(Sreberny-Mohammadi, A and Mohammadi, A 1994). Studies of media’s role in Iran have for
the most part been divided into three different categories. First, studies of the use and
importance of the media among Iranian immigrants living in the West, including Norway
(Gillespie 2000, Sreberny 2000, Naficy 1993, 1999 and Alghasi 1999, 2009). Second, studies
of media’s importance for the 2009 presidential election and its role in the events after the
elections; events that developed into the green movement (cf. Kamalipour 2010 and Khiabani
2010). Third, studies of the Iranian government’s policy concerning Iranians use of and access
to different types of media. Sreberny and Khiabani (2010) give a detailed analysis of the
Iranian government’s policy regarding the use of internet and blogging in contemporary post-
election Iran.
There are very few studies that have concentrated on the importance of media and its effect on
contemporary Iranian society. Varzi (2006) is one of the few anthropologists who analyses the
use of media among Iranian youth living in Iran. Her research focuses on how the Iranian
state attempts to produce and enforce an Islamic public sphere by governing behavior and by
manipulating images – particularly images related to religious martyrdom and the bloody war
with Iraq during the 1980s – through films, murals, and television shows. Her research
1
- In his State of the Union address on January 31, 2006, President George W. Bush turned his attention to Iran, describing it
as a “nation now held hostage by small clerical elite that is isolating and repressing its people.” The President went on to
stress that the “Iranian government is defying the world with its nuclear ambitions, and the nations of the world must not
permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons.”
2
- Although the law prohibits the ownership and sale of satellite dishes, the government has refused to enforce these laws
strictly for various reasons.

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demonstrates that many of her informants silently resist the government’s conflation of
religious faith and political identity. Another significant contribution is the book Media,
Culture and Society in Iran (Semati 2008). By analyzing a wide range of areas like the
internet, print press, advertising, satellite television, video, rock music, literature, cinema,
gender, religious intellectuals, and secularism, it explains Iran as a complex society that has
successfully managed to negotiate and embody the tensions of tradition and modernity, on the
one hand, and isolation and globalization, on the other (Semati 2008). The disadvantage of
such general overviews is, however, that they display cultural practices in today’s Iran
without giving in-depths accounts of any.
3- Research questions and expected findings
This project intends to study the effects of Western-produced images of Iran and Islam on
Iranians inside Iran in order to uncover how they generate an image of the West and the
United States as Iranians’ others. By focusing on double othering aspect, this project is unique
in that it develops a different way of considering the effects of a Western production of its
others.3
How do Iranians, who so clearly inhabit the position of the other about which
meaning (news) is produced, use this Western meaning to generate their own meaning and
produce knowledge about their own others? This is the way I define the “double othering” or
“mirroring” in this research project. With this in mind, the main objective of the research
project is the following:
 How does the interpretation of Western news about Iran and Islam shape my informants view of the
West, that is, how does the process of othering transpire?4
4- Theoretical framework
As mentioned earlier, the project is mainly concerned with the following two issues:
“Representation/othering” and “interpretation/mirroring”. These concepts have been
studied in many different disciplines and an interdisciplinary theoretical framework enables
me to address all the questions I have posed. For the first part, the analysis of the data will
cover and link the following two interrelated theoretical approaches. First, “postcolonial
3
- In this project I intend to differentiate between the Iranian government’s propaganda and the Western Media’s
representation of Iran. Depending on study participants fluency in English, it is possible to eliminate which one the two news
sources has more influence. At the same time, I will also look for the role that Persian language news channel such as BBC
Persian or Voice of America are playing in production of an image of the West amongst the Iranians.
4
- I am aware of the important role that “socio-cultural” context and informants positioning in relation to the news items play
in process of interpretation/mirroring. Therefore, I have included these as topics for two of the articles which will make up
the final dissertation.

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theories and its critique of Orientalism” will create the overall theoretical framework for
this part of the research project (Said 1981, 1985, 1995, Berg 1998, Sardar 1999). Based on
Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978) and its critique, I will give a brief overview of how the
West have historically defined, produced and represented the Orient.5
My own concept of
“double othering” will be developed based on this overview and in relation to the data
produced during the fieldwork. The theoretical framework of the second part is based on
media theories dealing with interpretation and production of meaning. Theories that deal
with interpretation, have been chosen, because the aim of the project is to discover how
Iranians read and interpret the media representations of themselves by western news media. I
adopt the assumption put forward by Hall (1980) and Lenart (1994) that contemporary mass
media play an important role in production of meaning (political or otherwise). Individuals
may have different readings of the same text; encoded messages may be decoded in different
ways. These readings or interpretations reflect the different cultural perceptions and
discourses in different audiences (Hall 1982, Alghasi 2009).
5- Methods
To reach an understanding of how American media representations of Iran and Islam6
impact
the image that Iranians produce of the West and America, I will live in Teheran while
conducting fieldwork. In order to delimit the scope of the project, I have decided to use a
group of students who attend a religious seminary to become future “clergy”. These are the
primary target group of the research project. I have chosen seminary students because they are
likely to occupy important positions and shape the power elite of Islamic republic in the
future. At the same time they also represent the conservative section of the Iranian society, a
section which in my view have not been given the importance their political and social
position calls for.
5
- According to Ashcroft & al., Orientalism is a common denominator for Western approaches to the Orient, including the
creation of a discipline through which the Orient became a topic and a field of learning, or more precisely, the discourse
which constituted the Orient in the Western conscience (Ashcroft & al 1989: 167).
6
- According to Abrahamian (2004), the Axis of Evil speech and the follow-up State of the Union Address included many
statements which shocked Iranians. The speeches defined Iran together with Iraq and North Korea as dangerous states which
pursue weapons of mass destruction. Ansari (2006) points out that few Iranians could reconcile themselves with the notion
that they belonged in the same category as their old foe Saddam Hussein or the totalitarian regime in North Korea.
Furthermore, the State of the Union Address described Iran as “repressed by an unelected few” and as “major exporter” of
terrorism. They depicted the Afghan campaign as “only just the start of the war against terror”, clearly implying that
countries like Iran would soon be targeted. They even spoke of pre-emptive strikes against future possible threats. “The
United States of America,” declared President Bush, “will not permit the world’s most dangerous regime to threaten us [the
US] with the world’s most destructive weapons” (New York Times 2002). Similar rhetorics is being used by President
Obama’s administration.

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In order to produce the necessary data this project will apply a qualitative ethnographic
method that will provide the fieldworker with experiential knowledge which can enables him
to interpret what he experiences as meaningful and important (Emerson et al. 2002). I will
record observations on student’s daily activities, their interaction with each other and relevant
discussions. If permitted, I will also attend student meetings. Participant observation at the
meetings will be an important source of data. Meetings will allow me to hear the opinions of
more students than I will be able to interview, as well as to observe individual behavior, group
dynamics, and opinion-building processes. I will use the combination of unstructured and
semi-structured interviews with study participants to elicit personal narratives that can
document their opinions regarding the impact of Western media representations of Iran and
Islam.
When it comes to the representation of Iran and Islam by Western/American news media, I
will use my informants view on this subject as the point of departure. This will provide me the
opportunity to study how and what the target group perceives as to be important and relevant.
At the same time it will also allow me to look for the relevant data within the public sphere
and newspapers in Iran.
6- Proposed dissemination
The dissertation will contain four published articles. Two articles will be written while I am in
Iran conducting fieldwork. The first article will concentrate on the methodological challenges
in doing fieldwork in a country such as Iran and attaining access to a group of seminary
students and the process of adaptation. The second article will discuss the sociocultural
context that creates the condition under which the meaning is produced. The third article will
discuss and analyze the governing principles for the socio-cultural context and how the
informants produce meaning and situate themselves in relation to the news items. The fourth
article will deal with how the interpretation of Western news about Iran shapes my informants
view of the West, that is, how does the process of othering transpire?
7- Advisor
Dag Tuastad have shown interest in this project and agreed to be my advisor.

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8- Progress Plan
Aug. 2012
Feb. 2013
Feb. 2013
Feb. 2014
Feb. 2014
Dec. 2015
Dec.2015
Aug.2015
Preparation Realization: Post fieldwork:
Organizing data
Analyzing data
Writing papers
Indebt analysis and
Writing
Detail planning and
preparation
Travelling to Iran and
contacting the religious
school in Tehran
Analysis of written media
articles which the target
group will find important
(the importance will be
decided during the fieldwork
through the received
feedback)
Writing article 4:
Producing the Iranian’s
other.
Generate an overview
on relevant research
and literature
Finding key informants
or gate-openers at the school
and the society in general
Analysis of ethnography and
empirical data and
categorizing them
Writing summery and the
Introduction
Establishing contact
with Iranian embassy
and Ministry for higher
education
Debt interviews with key
informants
Analysis of structured
and semi structured
interviews and categorizing
them thematically
Applying for research
permission from the
Iranian government
Writing article 1: Doing
fieldwork in Iran in a
seminary school
Writing article 3:
How the informants produce
meaning.
Choosing the religious
school for the fieldwork
and establishing contact
Writing article 2:
Sociocultural context and
the condition under which
meaning is produced
Construct overall
interview guide for the
fieldwork
Taking the theoretical
exam
References:
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