Khoei, Seyed Mohammad Mahdi (2016) The articulation of hegemonic power through television : Islamic Republic's discourses regarding Iranian everyday life. SOAS, University of London. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/23578 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this PhD Thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This PhD Thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this PhD Thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the PhD Thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full PhD Thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD PhD Thesis, pagination. The Articulation of Hegemonic Power through Television: Islamic Republic’s Discourses Regarding Iranian Everyday Life Seyed Mohammad Mahdi Khoei Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD 2016 School of Arts, Centre for Media Studies SOAS, University of London 1 Declaration for SOAS PhD thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the SOAS, University of London concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Signed: ________________________________________ Date: _________________ 2 ABSTRACT The Islamic Republic of Iran’s discourse has been articulated differently throughout various periods of its history. After the presidential election of 2009, this discourse was confronted by a crisis brought its hegemony into question. The claim of electoral fraud by the predominantly middle class residents of Tehran produced the “Green Movement”—with unprecedented protests and subsequent repression. Despite the repression, the Islamic Republic’s discourse also needed to form a kind of subjectivity among the middle class in order to remain hegemonic. The middle class in Tehran has always played a significant role in major social and political changes in contemporary Iranian history. Therefore, forming the subjectivity of the middle class secures the Islamic Republic’s discourse from losing its hegemony. Since 1979, Iranian state television has always represented the preferred meanings and ideal subject positions of the Islamic Republic’s discourse. Therefore, studying the representations of this apparatus reveals the articulation of the Islamic Republic’s discourse regarding different aspects of everyday life. Using the method of discourse analysis offered by Laclau and Mouffe, this research sets out to explore if the Islamic Republic’s discourse is the hegemonic discourse in forming the subjectivity of the Tehranian middle class after confronting a dislocation in 2009. The preferred meanings and ideal subject positions of this discourse were explored by studying three of the most popular television series in the four years following the events of 2009. The hegemonic appropriation of these meanings has been examined through conducting interviews with middle class residents of Tehran. Brining these two elements together, the research demonstrates that the Islamic Republic’s discourse has constructed a depoliticised subjectivity among this class that not only prevents the discourse from being dis-articulated, but also can advance its desired articulation within various realms of the middle class’s everyday life. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ 3 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................ 7 The Context of the StuDy ................................................................................................. 7 The Aim of the Research .................................................................................................. 9 Background to the Research .............................................................................................. 11 Contextualising the StuDy .............................................................................................. 13 Research Question ............................................................................................................. 14 The Necessity and Significance of the Research ................................................................ 15 Map of the Research ..................................................................................................... 18 CHAPTER TWO: THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .................................................... 20 EveryDay Life................................................................................................................. 20 FoucaulDian Approach to the Notion of Power ............................................................... 24 Discourse Through the FoucaulDian Approach ................................................................ 29 Different Accounts of the Notion of Discourse .................................................................. 33 Laclau and Mouffe’s Perception of the Notion of Discourse ............................................ 38 A Conceptual Framework for Discourse Analysis ............................................................... 40 Contextualising the Conceptual Framework of Laclau and Mouffe’s Discourse Analysis . 46 Hegemony, the Ultimate Goal of Discourses .................................................................. 52 The Formation of Subjects; by anD through Discourses ................................................... 57 Media, Interpellation and Discourse Analysis .................................................................... 65 CHAPTER THREE: EVOLUTION OF THE IRANIAN STATE TELEVISION DISCOURSE IN POST-REVOLUTIONARY IRAN .................................................................................. 69 The Formation Period of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Television Discourse: from 1979 to 1981 ............................................................................................................................. 71 Iranian State Television According to the Constitution ..................................................... 76 The Stabilisation PerioD of the Television Discourse of the Islamic Republic of Iran: from 1981 to 1989 ................................................................................................................. 77 Television and Social Cohesion in the Sixties-Decade ........................................................ 80 Television and Ideological Excitation in the Sixties-Decade ............................................... 83 Television and the Richness of Meanings in the Sixties-Decade ........................................ 87 The Emergence of Rival MeDia Discourses: Between the Years 1989 anD 1995 ................ 90 Cultural Resistance or Cultural Invasion ............................................................................ 93 Contextual Circumstances anD Different Articulations by the Same Principles: From 1995 until Now ...................................................................................................................... 97 IRIB Protects the Principlist Articulation ............................................................................ 98 IRIB’s Resources ............................................................................................................... 101 Further Consideration of IRIB’s Products in this Research .............................................. 102 CHAPTER FOUR: THINKING ABOUT MIDDLE CLASS IN OIL-RENT IRAN .................... 104 The Concept of the Middle Class .................................................................................. 104 The Emergence of the MoDern Middle Class in Tehran ................................................. 113 Before The Islamic Revolution of 1979 ............................................................................ 114 4 After the Islamic Revolution of 1979................................................................................ 119 CHAPTER FIVE: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................ 131 MethoDological Principles ........................................................................................... 131 MethoDological Strategies ........................................................................................... 136 Finding the Preferred Meanings of the IRdisc .................................................................. 136 Identifying the Tehranian Middle Class as the Social Position of Consideration ............. 141 Examination of Prevalence of Desired Form of Subjectivity by IRdisc among the Tehranian Middle Class ..................................................................................................................... 146 Method of collecting data .......................................................................................................... 146 Process of interviews ................................................................................................................