‍Problem and Problem-solving in Intercultural Communication: Epistemology of Language and Effective Communication

This paper proposes an examination of the epistemological position of intercultural communication as it is experiencing a lack of orthodoxy tradition. It is claimed here that a lack of such tradition, in turn, has reflected itself on problems such as a) ill-determined subject matter of intercultural communication, b) ill-conceived theoretical stance of intercultural communication, and; c) undecided methodological considerations. We contend here that in order to demarcate the subject areas of intercultural communication, and in order to deal with the above-mentioned concerns, this scientific field should at least be able to resolve the question of what is the nature of problematic in intercultural communication. The paper goes on to claim that once the problematic of intercultural communication is determined the problem-solving processes would force the field to determine its paradigms and methodological considerations. To follow this line of logic, the paper uses a combined methodology and will indicate that it is a principle in intercultural communication that in order to solve problems one needs to rely on epistemological stance of the one’s researcher more than he/she will rely on traditional model of academic articulations. Therefore, we will focus on the role of language and symbols in formation of problems in intercultural communication, as well as their role in helping to resolve problems. We will consider three stages in development and evolution of social sciences. In the third stages, which started in the 1980s individuals ’as well as groups’, expectations took precedence over structural and coercive expectations. Taking these developments into consideration the paper claims that problematic of intercultural communication in the third stage can be understood and identified as a result of the effect of four issues: 1- failures of scientific-paradigmatic of modern science, 2- local experiences of individuals and groups, 3- the interaction between extra-national expectations and new media specially internet

Network Analysis of Twitter Users in Iran; Studying Public Sphere Properties

This paper aims to evaluate whether features of the public sphere are present in the activities of Iranian Twitter users. To achieve this objective, the paper provides a synthesis of computational social sciences, network analysis, and Habermas’s approach to the public sphere. The data comes from all Iranian users, including those who are actively engaged in political issues on Twitter. This method of data collection focuses on the computational aspects of the users. Added information on how they conducted networking and facilitated public opinion, which resulted in increased user interaction, would complete the data-gathering process to align with the theoretical claims. It also indicates that Twitter was a platform on which Iranian users fulfilled the requirements of the public sphere. Some of the findings indicate that there were 48,076 users connected with 25,534,713 edges, and together, they formed three communities. While one of the communities focused solely on social issues, the other two engaged in a rival political challenge. It seems that this situation exemplified the main characteristic of the public sphere, namely, the freedom to express political views and the formation of diverse communities with competing ideas

Understanding the Managerial Logic Used by the Iranian Public Science Magazines for the Production of Content

This paper will attempt to discover how public science magazines in Iran use a managerial logic in order to produce their projected content. Production of knowledge in this area will contribute to understanding why and how specific type of content is being produced in science magazines in Iran. In order to acquire such knowledge the paper will focus on how a language is being used as a tool of simplifying science. In addition, the paper will explore the type of logical relations which have been established between application of language capabilities in such magazines and the managerial logic that run such magazines. The importance of this research lies in the fact that these magazines have been around for about 100 years, while the management of transmitting their scientific messages has not yet been researched on. In order to do this research we have used a combined methodology that consists of content analysis, direct interviews and survey. The units of observations or subjects of study included individuals who are considered to make up such magazines’ audience, as well as randomly selected magazines. Due to the fact that when we started the research we figured out that a thorough list of Iranian science magazines did not exist, therefore, we first had to provide such list. Afterwards and according to such list as one of our units of analysis, we were able to determine how to do random sampling.   Some findings indicate that science magazines in Iran have been using a simplified language accompanied by making science attractive to their audience while interacting with their audience as strategies of building up their audience. Other findings indicate that the managerial logic that leads the content has been focusing on the dichotomy of culture and information as major function of their content. Based on our interviews and survey results, we however discovered that focusing on business and education would probably be a more effective strategy to organize the content of science magazines in Iran

An Explanatory Analysis of the Relationship between Facebook Usage and Social Capital (Research Subjects: Tehrani Users)

Introduction This paper examines the relationship between social capital and using Facebook social media. In order to tackle the issue, it should first be noted that according to the latest statistics the total number of Facebook users in the world has passed the threshold of one billion in September 2013. And, based on the latest statistics, Iran ranks 13th among all countries in terms of the total number of internet users in proportion to the total population. There is no official statistics depicting the total number of Facebook users in Iran but we calculated the proportion of internet usage and Facebook usage in various countries and realized that we can also use that proportion to estimate the number of Facebook users in Iran. It seems to be around 17 million. This indicates that both the internet and social media have penetrated into Iranian homes in an interesting rate, something that needs to be addressed scientifically. Accordingly, we approached the issue from a sociological point of view and used Ellison's theoretical framework to analyze the issue. To be more specific, we used Ellison's hypotheses to explain the positive correlation between a rise in the intensity of Facebook usage and a concurrent rise in social capital. We talk about bridging social capital to mean those relations that are weak and do not necessarily involve personal and emotional elements in relationships. These types of relations are quantitatively enormous and contribute to dissemination as well as acquisition of information but they cannot function as familial relationships (Ellison et al. 2007). Bounding social capital is also another concept by which we mean relations that are very intimate, especially where there is an exchange of emotional support (Steinfield, 2008). It should also be added that Robert Putnam considers displacement and social-geographical mobility to be one of the causes of the decline of social capital in the USA (Ibid). We consider maintaining social capital as the capacity to preserve connections with friends and old acquaintances (Ellison et al. 2007). We take social capital at an individual level. Material and Methods This paper assumes a mixed-method approach in which both qualitative and quantitative tools are used. It should nevertheless be emphasized that we used survey method as the major methodology of the study. In addition, we also used focus group interviews and participatory observations as auxiliary methods. Data gathering for the survey section took place in both online and offline environments. In order to select the necessary samples, we used cluster sampling for offline sampling in some selected boards of educational zones in Tehran and repeated a similar survey after 11 months using a random sampling method only to make sure that the reliability of the sampling method is achieved. For the online survey we used an online targeted cluster sampling to select subjects from among boys and girls who are high school in Tehran. We also used a general sampling method in online survey applying Abdollahyan's sampling technique which he calls it reverse sampling. In such a technique, sampling and survey are launched at the same time through Google drive. In order to evaluate the reliability of the scales we used Cronbach’s Alpha test and the results scored more than 0.7 for all scales indicating a desirable reliability level. We also used factor analysis and Promax rotation test in which the KMO coefficient scored higher than 0.75, meaning that the scales are reliable enough to meet the requirements of the reliability criteria. We also repeated this survey 11 months after the initial survey and the results confirmed the reliability and validity of measurement tools used in this research. For data analysis, we used Fuzzy and quantitative methods. We considered internet users as our unit of analysis and for the offline part we considered Tehran's high school students to be our unit of analysis. The final sample size taken from our units of analysis reached to 2437 subjects, on whom the whole study was conducted. Discussion of Results and Conclusions We examined the research hypotheses in the following three methods: 1- we evaluated the correlation between intensity of Facebook use and a rise in three types of social capital, 2- we evaluated the differences of mean among three types of social capital in two groups, i.e., control group including those who are Facebook users and experimental group including those who do not use Facebook; and, 3- we also used a qualitative and comparative analysis of comments offered by non-Facebook-users and Facebook users using focus group discussions. Some of the findings indicate that as using Facebook increases, the bridging social capital and maintaining social capital also increase. There is also a difference between those who use Facebook and those who do not, in terms of the level of social capital. It should be noted that the results indicate that the mean level of all three types of social capital among Facebook users are higher than the same level among those who are not Facebook users. Of other contributions of this paper we can refer to the fact that online environment does not necessarily weaken social relations. In some cases, it can even lead to the strengthening of those social relations that have been weakened by urban lifestyle. The results of the focus group discussions and participatory observations (Abdollahyan and Sheykhansari, 2012) indicate that working within Facebook environment leads to the generation of new vocabulary (lingo) which is then introduced to new generations of Facebook users. Also, the information turnover and its extent among Facebook users is so much, so that every time that users login in their account they have to face new information about various events. In contrast, those who are not Facebook users, would use other tools of mass media to update their information, based on personal interests. This comparison drags our attention to a very critical phenomenon, i.e., the rate of information exchanged among Facebook users about various socio-political events have grown drastically. The friendship circle of Facebook users becomes expanded because it includes all people that such a user might know during his/her course of life. Whereas the friendship circle of a non-Facebook-user is limited to those with whom the individual is acquainted with in his/her real life and can have a face to face interaction. The level of trust among Facebook users for promoting friendship is high and they accept friendship invitations very easily. They do not have to go through a lot of evaluations to choose their virtual friends. The non-Facebook-users, on the other hand, protect their private spheres and are cautious about new friendships, if they are to choose new friends. We also discovered that there is a prominent difference between Facebook users and non-Facebook users in terms of getting intimate or close with a friend. Nevertheless, taking maintaining family relations as criteria, we noticed that almost all family members in the same age had a tendency to get connected through Facebook. It is possible therefore that if a familial connection is somehow cut off in the real life, reconnection happens through same-age groups in Facebook. Generally, Facebook functions in two ways for families, i.e., on the one had it preserves connections at a minimal level and on the other hand, it is a means of monitoring one another without having any real connections. The results also indicate that using Facebook can improve psychological health of a person. Those Facebook users who have a low level of self-esteem, use Facebook as a means of strengthening their social relations. We also discovered that Facebook users have a higher level of satisfaction from their friendship relationships and like to be with their Facebook friends, even more than the company of friends in actual space

Electronic Publishing; Challenges and Opportunities; Focusing on E-journalism

This paper is an attempt first to introduce the conceptual definition of public sphere from Habermas’s point of view, then explores its compatibility to virtual space as new grounds for formation of new public spheres and finally evaluates challenges and opportunities that the new media can produces with a focus on Electronic publishing.  The focus of the paper is on the challenging nature of electronic publishing that is developing in the world and is sometimes considered as pathological while some consider it as an opportunity for formation or reproduction of public sphere. It is therefore the objective of this paper to answer the question of whether or not e-journalism will provide a ground for development or reproduction of public sphere. The paper in the end will try to propose strategies and /or ways that can take us out of the challenging situation that is being put forward by the development of virtual space. For this academic adventure, we have chosen e-journalism for our analysis as we consider being on the rise while facing challenges that are not applicable to traditional media such as television and radio.  This is a contribution to the body of literature on development of new public sphere along with development of e-journalism