Paramilitary Media: Revolution, War, and the Making of the Islamic Republic of Iran

摘要

This dissertation is an ethnography of state power in the Islamic Republic, offering insights into how the hegemonic paramilitary organization, Basij, attempts to influence its citizens via media. If successful, every revolutionary movement eventually faces a dilemma: how does the commitment to the revolutionary project get transmitted from one generation to the next as historical circumstances change? In investigating this question, I look at how pro-regime cultural producers, affiliated primarily with the Basij, but also with the Revolutionary Guard and Ansar-e Hezbollah, produce media in everyday interactions between producers, directors, editors, translators, and viewers. My research builds on work addressing how revolutions are transmitted from one generation to the next via media and communication technologies. Most scholarly work on revolutionary experiences has largely addressed areas of resistance within revolutionary regimes, particularly in the case of Iran. Drawing on 18 months of fieldwork in Tehran, Abadan, and Karaj, among Basij filmmakers, my study addresses the work of a hegemon in attempting to advance a culture of revolution. I argue that at stake is not just the creation of new forms of revolutionary media, but also new ways of guiding the future of the Islamic Republic through the cultivation of today's citizen.