Representation of Iranian social protests in two Persian-language media outlets abroad;A historical-discursive analysis of Instagram and Twitter posts of BBC Persian and Iran International (1401-1396)

Taherkhani, Fatemeh

doi:10.30465/cps.2026.54120.3660

Representation of Iranian social protests in two Persian-language media outlets abroad;A historical-discursive analysis of Instagram and Twitter posts of BBC Persian and Iran International (1401-1396)

Document Type : .

Author

Fatemeh Taherkhani

Institute For Humanities And Cultural Studies

10.30465/cps.2026.54120.3660

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze the representation of two news agencies, Iran International and BBC Persian, on the issue of social unrest in Iran from a discursive perspective. For this purpose, the focus is on three uprisings that occurred between January 1396 and September 1401 AH. The question that the present study seeks to answer is: What were the most important discursive strategies of the aforementioned media outlets on the subject of social protests in Iran? Ruth Wodak's historical-discourse analysis method was used to discover the themes and discursive strategies used by these two media outlets in representing social uprisings as well as their political goals and intentions, and these results were obtained: Both media outlets, using themes such as "philanthropy", "legal", "utility", "financial-economic" and also strategies such as "news-documentary", "perspective-building" and "bipolarization", sought to legitimize interference in Iran's internal affairs, display the socio-ethnic and religious divide, shape false narratives by symbolizing those killed in the protests, and attempt to weaken the position of the revolutionary leader.

Keywords

Representation

Discourse

Social Unrest

Media

Islamic Republic of Iran

Subjects