اکتشاف ارتباطات ایران برای مخاطبان هدف چندگانه

State-controlled media use similar message techniques to target specific publics that counterparts in democratic societies use. We explore talking points (attributes) and themes (frames) through content analysis in state-produced propaganda directed at two different audiences. Domestic and internationally targeted propaganda (N = 1491) from Iran regarding the issue of regional security was reviewed. Results indicated Iran emphasized different attributes and frames based on audiences. Themes about enemy correlated, and relationships between officials and themes were explored.

Public relations, along with the government information-service equivalent called public affairs, play a pivotal role in democracies. Freedom of press creates a watchdog role for the media, with practitioners acting as mediators to grant journalists access to information and facilitate coverage in a transparent world driven by the 24-h news cycle. Yet, not all nations operate under such free and transparent edicts. Even today, there are many nations around the world with ministries of information that – to varying degrees in each country – watch over and govern their national press (Lynch, 2006). In these countries, public relations practitioners are reduced to propagandists and instructed to strategically shape messages, which undoubtedly are carried unfiltered and without question by state-controlled media. Yet, even in these far corners of the world where information is controlled by the state, communicators use the same message techniques to target specific publics that practitioners in democratic societies use. In an effort to understand the varying issue attributes and framing techniques that a single propaganda-producing government uses to present an issue to varying publics, this study seeks to explore the differences between propaganda messages intended for domestic, internal audiences and those targeted to an external, international audience. The purpose of this study is to compare the varying message attributes and frames regarding an issue used by a single country in their domestic and international audience propaganda. In doing so, this research will examine Iran's discussion of regional security. This nation and issue was specifically chosen because, anecdotally, some would characterize Iran's use of propaganda as “speaking with a ‘forked tongue”’, as state-released news and information is largely questioned in the western world. Using second-level agenda-setting and framing theory to quantify the various attributes (talking points) and frames (themes) of an issue, this study will reveal how a government-controlled, closed-media society communicates to the people within the country and an international, external audience. Through content analysis, this study hopes to shed light on modern propaganda to determine which messages are being communicated to each audience.