Journal of Iranian Cultural Research

Journal of Iranian Cultural Research

The past-oriented Iranian culture: A semiotic analysis of the "Tunnel Zaman" program on “Manoto” TV Channel

Document Type : Scientific Research Manuscript

Authors
Fatemeh Montazeri Hedeshi 1
Hossein Sarfaraz 2
1 MA in Communication Studies, Faculty of Communication, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran
2 Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, Faculty of Communication, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran
10.22035/jicr.2025.3346.3619
Abstract
This research aims to explain the cultural dynamics of Iranian society, part of which, lies in the contrast between past-oriented and future-oriented cultures. Media, as one of the tools of cultural reminiscence, can play a role in reviving the past-oriented discourse. For this purpose, the "Tunnel Zaman" program on Manoto TV channel, has been selected to analyze how the past Iranian culture is reproduced. The main question here is how this media plays a fundamental role in the representation and reproduction of the past-oriented discourse. The research has been conducted using the cultural semiotics method of the Tartu Moscow School, employing concepts such as binary oppositions, self and other, culture and non-culture, text and non-text, and presence and absence. This research accomplishes a kind of cultural typology of the past-oriented Iranian society. As a result, it became clear how media, especially in this study, the content of Manoto's "Tunnel Zaman", uses cultural mechanisms to transform the past from a state of non-text and death into a living text, as well as how the desirable past in this program, which is introduced as of the Pahlavi era, is reproduced and represented.
Keywords
past-oriented
cultural semiotics
typology
binary opposition
Manoto TV Channel

Subjects

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  • Receive Date 26 July 2024
  • Revise Date 11 December 2024
  • Accept Date 12 January 2025