Critical Study of the Policies and Approaches of Religious TV Programs Production

From among the three perspectives to TV study, namely the audience, the content and the production system perspective, this paper deals with the third and through examining the production of religious television programs attempts to explain the related policies and approaches as part of the production system. This study has been conducted in ‘the political economy of the media’ theoretical framework which considers important concepts like ‘ownership’, ‘political economy’ and ‘hegemony’, effective in TV programs production. In order to achieve this objective, on the one hand this study has been performed by a qualitative method in which the IRIB documents are examined, and on the other hand the people involved in producing religious TV programs at different levels are deeply interviewed, so that a Comprehensive landscape could be subsequently achieved in this regard. This study led us to this conclusion that the religious TV programs in Iran follow at least four major approaches: occasion-based approach, emphasis on religious sentiments; functional view of religion; and support the Theocracy (religious government/sovereignty). The reason behind these approaches is the intended hegemony establishment, which will form customary processes in television religious programs.