نشریه دین و ارتباطات
سال چهاردهم شماره 2 (پاییز و زمستان 1386)

This paper tries to study the complex relationship between religion, popular culture and the internet. The Internet not only prepares some facilities for religion, but also it’s a site for a new interaction between religion and popular culture. First, the paper points out five features of the Internet which help to extend and promote the religious communication in the cyberspace: 1. deterritorialization and globalization of religious market,2. religious democratization, 3. anonymity, 4. easy accessibility, 5. trust. The paper distinguishes between two forms of presence of religion on the net: religion online and online religion. Religion online is a more interactive form of relationship among the faithful. Finally, the paper deals with the presence of popular culture on the net, and its interaction with religion that will lead to a new interpretation of religious beliefs and values in the believers.

The article is to search for answers as to what changes have occurred in today’s Ashura mourning ceremonies to cause concerns amongst the majority of Muslims. After analyzing literary genres of epic, tragedy, and elegy, the conclusion is that one of the most significant changes was a shift from epic to tragedy in Ashura literary works in the previous centuries and then from tragedy to elegy in the previous years. Combining elegy with worldly love has created a certain type of literature whose mourning presents more a social than a religious function. The idea has been illustrated through samples from the available poems and dirges.

In the contemporary cultural world, the linkage between two influential issues, i.e power and culture is manifested mostly in the forms of cultural politics as well as cultural policy. The functional aftermath of these is nothing but determining the bio-social meaning and everyday actions, cultural representation and legitimizing everyday culture and ultimately organizing thought and cultural acts. Here we are also witnessing the formation of another noticeable domain of cultural policies that are centered around religion. This means a religious cultural policy that has resulted in a social pattern consisting of religious culture, religious politics, religious culture policies and religious policies in culture. In this sense religious culture politics especially in more religious sensitive societies or the ones with religious- oriented regimes (such as contemporary Iran) deal with a discourse that could be called popular culture. In this regard there are some questions about religious policies for the Iranian popular culture that need to be elaborated.1-Which discourse policies are pivotal?2-Which discourse subjects are more referred to?3-What are the ultimate discourses for these subjects?The article has provided answers for these within particular theoretical frameworks such as religious politics of identity- cultural resistance and its appropriate method and critical discourse analysis.

Using the medium of cinema to convey religious concepts and messages is part of media activities in contemporary world. This usage is sometimes very naïve and simple and sometimes is generated from a deep understanding of religion, media and the necessities of each. In the first case the religious movie is confined to a specific religion and its theme seems like a slogan. In the second case the religious movie will include the shared divine and human messages among religions. As such it will become interesting for a vaster range of the audience, without disappointing them with simple slogans.In this article, while comparing two movies i.e Kavir (the Desert), and Ghadamgah (the Station), as examples for the first and second kind of cinema, it is argued that the religious cinema of the second kind, being multilayered and artistic, will be effective and successful in respect to its aims, whereas the first kind will work against itself and its aims, and actually will alienate the audience from real religion.

In the field of religious social studies in Iran, they have done little about the mechanism of production and reproduction of the collective conscience of a religious community. By relying on approaches existing in symbolic and social anthropology we can raise the issue of tracing the most salient and common religious rituals that have the principal role in reproducing the shia's collective conscience. According to Durkheim, religion and the sacred are ultimately the representation of the society in sacred symbols. In other words, the society reproduces itself in religious rituals and their accompanying ideology through these symbols.In the process of these rituals, the believer's collective conscience is actively produced and reproduced and the the individual gains his collective consciousness out of the existing religious mentality in those rituals, thus internalizing his society.Western travelogue writers from Safavids onwards have provided numerous data about various cultural domains and Iranian religious society. A noticeable issue for Christian observers in Iran, has been the Iranian religion especially Shiism.The data indicate that the Muharram mourning ritual is the core of Shiite collective practice in which the believers reach the climax of their religious and collective emotions. By adopting Durkheim’s approach, Muharram ritual is to be considered as the central religious practice in which the Iranian Shias’ collective conscience and consciousness are produced and reproduced. This is where the believers’ religious mentality is shaped and the link between the individual and society is formed resulting in the development of social identity.

The French society is now a symbolic representation of state and religion confrontation. On the one hand there is the state with its modern interpretation of secularism that aims at confining religious practice to its former private domain; on the other, one should take heed of a newly emerged religious trend which shuns its previously assigned role by asserting that a secular regime can no longer ignore the individuals’ religious rights, even though they may be unprecedented.But what is appealing to an unprejudiced researcher is the occurrence of a so-called spiritual orientation in the French society as an aftermath of this confrontation. The author has used various methods such as field study, literature review and interview with French citizens and authorities in order to make a sociological hypothesis: To the extent that religious culture has gained momentum in the secular society, the secular regime has extended its power beyond its former domain to even some of the citizens’ private affairs.

Today we are experiencing a new revolution in the fields of information and communication taking place in the real virtual space and virtual reality. The concept of global village has now taken the form of global mentality, and communication revolution has changed into information revolution. New technologies have effected fundamental changes in the workings of, and the relations between, organizations and institutions. Needless to say, public relations, as the link connecting organizations and institutions together, must be capable of adapting itself to these changes. Therefore, those in charge of public relations are, more than any other thing, expected to consider and attend to the effects of new technologies on organizations.Defining the concept of “electronic public relations,” the present article observes that although electronic public relations has not yet been fully developed and, in a sense, is passing through its early phases, it has a very promising prospect of being expanded and extended to all governmental and non-governmental organizations and institutions. It is expected that in the near future public relations will experience a range of profound changes, as a result of which there will occur a fundamental change in one of the main functions of public relations, i.e. Research-Orientedness in different aspects. The present article is an endeavor to delve into the different aspects of the above-mentioned changes in the field of public relations.