Audience, “ Media” Communication and the end of “ Mass” Communication: Studying the relation between cultural dependency of Iranians in Toronto and their media consumption

Khadjehnoori, Nastaran

Audience, “ Media” Communication and the end of “ Mass” Communication: Studying the relation between cultural dependency of Iranians in Toronto and their media consumption

Author

Nastaran Khadjehnoori

Abstract

Considering the shift from “Mass” to “Media” communication and many psychological, sociological and technological factors such as unpredictable behavior of audiences, increased media literacy, diversification of media and availability of different media at one hand, and the increased degree of geographic mobility and immigration on the other, this article is to study the media behavior of audiences in immigration regarding their cultural identities and background. By combining the audience oriented and media dominated approaches, in this article the sociological and semiological approaches in television studies have been emphasized. In this respect by conducting a field study, the media behavior of Iranians in Toronto has been studied and the correlation between their cultural dependency and the way they consume the media and also the correlation between their needs and the type of selected media have been inspected.

Keywords

media communication

audience oriented approach

media dominated approach

mass audience

functions of audience

audience’s needs

cultural identity dependency