Reception of Rural Women in Television Series: The Case of Rural Women of Eastern Miankouh of Pol-e-Dokhtar and the TV Series Gozar Az Ranjha (Passing through Sufferings)

This study was conducted to investigate the reception of rural women of Eastern Miankouh of Pol-e-Dokhtar in Iran from the TV series Gozar Az Ranjha (Passing through Sufferings), which was broadcasted from channel one of the Iranian National TV (IRIB TV1) during the winter of 2014. A sample of 21 women were selected purposively, and semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect the data. The criterion for determining the sample size was theoretical saturation. To analyze the data, thematic analysis was used. The findings indicate that the women, in various social situations, actively received the dominant discourse of the film series. In fact, the type of decryption was in a spectrum that we categorized as oppositional, hegemonic and negotiated positions. The results showed that the rural women made modifications based on their own discourse access in the values and ideals of the text, discussed by them based on their own social and cultural milieu. They modified the meanings of the dominant discourse, including dual contrasts, ideal type of womanhood and psychological orientation based on their position, and they expanded and developed new meanings, such as “the decisive role of men” and “escape from sufferings”. The series attracted the rural audience for entertainment, earning pleasure, participating in group discussions, identification with the roles, etc.  Overall, the findings support the theory of ‘active audience’ even for the case of the studied rural women.