Dysfunctions of Mass Media in Intensifying Brain Drain

Realizing 20 years national vision requires expert, educated and empowered manpower in all fields. On the other hand our expert human resources migrate to developed countries in recent decades and nowadays brain drain has been a national crisis in Iran. In this article we are going to explain mass media’s effects on brain drain especially national mass media. Inspiring from push-pull model and cultivation theory we introduce a theoretical framework to recognize effects of mass media on brain drain. We apply semi-structured deep interview as an information gathering tool to identify brain drain causes and to recognize mass media’s effect in brain drain. We choose our sample from Sharif University of technology and our subjects were senior in engineering disciplines who wanted and applied to migrate to developed countries. According to research results, internet is the main determinant media and satellite and television are the later ones. Subjects believe that television programs low quality, incongruence between expert’s needs and television programs, inappropriate representations of experts in mass media, low opportunity of youths in television programs, no diffusion of scientific ethos and deinstitutionalization of science in society are the main factors in brain drain as a dysfunctions of mass media. They think that national mass media in Iran are the hobby and entertainment tools of illiterate people rather than expert persuasion mean.