Tehran's propaganda explores new channels to net young people
They did not live through the founding events of the Islamic Republic: for this reason, the theocratic regime is trying to adapt its messaging and means of communication to attract and involve the new generations. The mural on Valiasr Street is a perfect example, as emerges from a study recently published by Olmo Gölz and Kevin Schwartz.
Tehran (AsiaNews) - In late October, an oil tanker flying the Vietnamese flag was seized by the Guards of the Revolution in the Gulf of Oman. It was released on November 10 "after being emptied of oil belonging to the Islamic Republic of Iran," Iranian state media reported.
In Valiasr, Tehran's busiest street, the whole affair was the subject of billboard propaganda depciting a menacing star-spangled octopus clutching and trying to block an Iranian ship (see photo 1), also alluding to a previous American seizure of oil bound for Iran.
The image that appeared on the billboard is an example of rigid propaganda, the classic form that one expects from the Islamic Republic, in which the United States and the West are portrayed as the number one enemies of a combatitive Iran. But today, this formula is increasingly being flanked by others characterized as "soft propaganda" techniques, aimed in particular at young people. This is what emerges from a study conducted by Olmo Gölz, professor of Islamic and Iranian Studies at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and Kevin Schwartz, researcher at the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, who analyzed the style and content of propaganda posters that appeared in this crucial traffic hub of the capital over the past two years.
In 2016, 62% of the population was under 40 years old: this means that the new generations have not experienced the Islamic revolution of 1978-79 and have no memories of the war with Iraq in 1980-88, the two traumatic and founding events that - along with the myth of martyrdom, central to Shiite ideology - have helped build and cement the idea of nationhood at the base of Iranian propaganda.
The analysis of the two scholars starts from the way in which the killing of General Qassem Suleimani by the United States in January 2020 has been narrated. Immediately after his death, the billboard depicted the face of the chief of staff of the Guards of the Revolution accompanied by a phrase calling for revenge for the blood spilled (see photo 2).
A week later the billboard was replaced by a phrase commemorating the 240 victims of the Ukraine International Airlines flight 752, mistakenly shot down by the Iranian government a few days earlier. How do you reconcile the two? Valiasr's mural was "designed to change quickly," reads Gölz's study: it is crucial to the regime both because of its ability to be "ideologically flexible, even ambiguous," and because it "creates a space for participation and discussion with the population."
In order to attract a wider segment of the population, it is necessary that the concept of martyrdom is now communicated with "soft propaganda" techniques. Exactly one month after Suleimani's death, an image appeared on Valiasr in which the general was represented surrounded by citizens (see photo 3). There are women, some even without chadors, and, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, there are no clerics, indicating a certain degree of separation from the regime itself and its Islamic character. A child with a red headband that reads "ya muntaqim" (the Avenger, referring to one of God's names) makes a "T" with his hands, symbolizing that Americans may come vertically (from the sky), but they will return horizontally (in a coffin).
As alienating as this may be for a western citizen, it is effectively explained by Gölz: "The fact that Suleimani is venerated as a martyr - continues the expert - is enough to establish the regime as a point of reference, while at the same time hiding this fact behind an apparently non-ideological appeal to national unity. For this reason, those who stand behind Suleimani, as well as those who see the billboard, are not asked to be united for the Islamic Republic, but for Iran".
The mural on Valiasr Street is therefore part of the government's new ways of involving the younger generation in the nation-building process, spreading in a new form the ideas on which the Islamic Republic is founded.
Gölz tells AsiaNews. "First of all, the regime changed its propaganda techniques during the last decade. The strategies have become much more sophisticated and up-to-date regarding the means of communication. Agencies, aliened with the government have a high presence on social media for example. During the so-called green movement, the regime realized that it lost the hearts and minds of many of the younger (but also older) generation. The new propaganda efforts reflect a learning of regime cultural producers," the lecturer continues, citing the protests following the 2009 presidential elections that called for the resignation of then-President of the Republic Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Nevertheless, some messages characterized by more traditional styles of propaganda do resurface from time to time. "The 'hard propaganda' messages," comments the expert, "functions always as a forms of power projections affecting passers-by. The message is: we’re not only doing this because that’s how we see it, instead, we’re doing this because we can. We’re powerful enough to frown upon the US.."
"The new propaganda efforts -Gölz concludes- reflect a learning of regime cultural producers. On the other hand, In Iran as every where else in the world, the state is not a monolithic bloc but a heterogenous construct in which messages and ideological positions shift. Thus, also propaganda messages do shift and campaigns change their messages. However, some of the core messages – for example that Iran regards itself as a anti-Imperialist state and thus a forerunner of Third-Worldism – remain the same."
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12/02/2016 15:14
24/09/2021 09:21
