An Analysis of the Role of Newspapers and Their Impact on the Protests of the Nasser al-Din Shah era (1848-1896 A.D.)

The phenomenon of protest turned the Nasser al-Din Shah rea into one of the most tense periods in the history of government-nation relations in Qajar Iran. Weakness of government, pervasive economic challenges, gradual transition of Iranian society from tradition to modernity, change in Iran's foreign relations, structural inefficiency and similar factors, on a relatively large scale, led to dissatisfaction and protests in most provinces of Iran. The newspapers helped to some extent to provoke and encourage public opinion on the current situation on a relatively large scale in Iran. Akhtar and Qanun are among the newspapers of the late reign of Nasser al-Din Shah that established an effective link with the issue of the protests of this period and played a significant role in the growing influence of these protests on the future developments in Iran. The present study seeks to answer the questions of what factors effected on the scope of influence of newspapers in the process of protests in the Nasser al-Din Shah era and were to what extent the role of Akhtar and Qanun newspapers in the recent protests of this period? In this research, with a descriptive-analytical way, the hypothesis will be examined that the newspapers of the Nasser al-Din Shah era did not have the ability to widely reflect the protests of this period, but in the few protests of the late of this era, they became disguised one of the most important tools in spreading the protests of this period.