Gender and Generations Modes of Religiosity: Locality versus Globality of Iranian Media

摘要

This paper attempts to explain the ever-reconstructing mechanism of religious beliefs, focusing on interactions between new generations and the formal media in Iran as a reconstructing process. This examination is accomplished through (1) analysis of a debate on localized trends among gender and generations-based social groups and (2) attention to the differential global trends originating from a multiplicity of media sources undermining indigenized and local trends. The paper argues that there is an ever-increasing gap between formal religious teachings and religious ideals of new generations. Religiosity of new generations is connected to religious rituals (Ashura ceremonies), which formal media advertise. New generation audience members make sense of their everyday life based on mediated messages from sources such as the Internet. These media, however, function in accordance with a set of secular principles, and therefore transfer secular teachings and values to the audience. Under these circumstances, new generation audience members indicate an indigenizing media consumption pattern in their beliefs, but reflect a global mode of behavior that challenges their religious identity. Theoretical claims are supported by a data sample of 1,200 during the years 2002 and 2003.