Gender and Media: A Comparative Analysis of Impact of Gender on Media Usagein Iran-(Secondary Analysis of Survey of National Data)

The objective of the paper is to analyzethe impact of gender on media usage, and the preference and precedence given to various types of this media and their contents, in Iranian Society. Most of the relevant studies concentrate on representation, reception analysis and on the norms of women’s favorite genres. In general, gender plays a determining role in the use of different media sources and research concerningthis issue, has aspecial position in media studies. Most gender-based studies on media usagehave focused their attention on women; likewise, in this paper, we have also preferred to concentrate our attention onwomen.The main question is to investigate,taking into consideration the different kinds of pleasures and preferences, to what extent the gender variable could be a determining factor. Findings show that, with the exception of the internet,which is dominated worldwide by men, in general, gender is not a determining factor in researching the norms of media usage in Iran. This conclusion could imply gender equality in Iran, at least in terms of media usage.