International Mass Media and Religious Identity among the Youth of Shiraz

The current article studies the influence of mass media on religious identity of young people of Shiraz. The breadth and depth of the soft power of media has caused the prevalence of expressions such as global village and globalization of culture in the social, cultural and media literature in various societies. Belonging to identity elements is one of the most affected areas in the sphere of mass media activities. This article is the result of empirical research in this area and wants to investigate the effects of global mass media (satellite TV’s and internet) on belonging to the religious identity of the youth. In other words, the main question is whether the use of global mass media effects the youth with religious background. And if the answer is yes, what are the influential mechanisms? To answer these questions, after reviewing the literature, causal models include mechanism variables, was constructed. The population of this study comprised students in the third year of high school in Shiraz. The method used in this research was survey and validity of variables measured by formal validity and variables reliability measured by Cronbach's alpha. The statistical hypothesis testing used in this article included Pearsons correlation, ANOVA, multivariable regression and path analysis. Correlation analysis showed a negative significant relation between the amount of international mass media use and religious identity.