Media and Civil Society in Developing Countries (A Case Study of Iran)

Abstract

Creating civil societies based on deep rooted cultures in the developing countries is confronted with a series of obstacles and impediments; from non- democratic governments to non-educated people from traditional unchangeable believes to rapidly transformation of cultures and alternating them with new unknown identities. In this situation, Media is playing an important role for shaping a civilized society based on its valuable cultural and identical characters. The new technologies of Media including satellite and internet mostly are accessible for many of the activists who are struggling to pass the process of civilizing their societies with keeping their historical identities. With this regard, the main purpose of this article is to analyze the role of internet and different Persian weblogs and websites derived by young civil activists, journalists and some NGOs to improve and establish the main elements of civil society based on national and religious identities of Iranian culture by creating a new media wave that we can call it "the Bloggers Movement". The history of this process, the reason of choosing this way and the challenges and opportunities of its creators will also be discussed in this paper. Keywords : civil society, media, Iran, weblog, Journalism

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