2010

Iran: Modern Media and Electoral Authoritarianism

A study of the Use of Modern Media in the Presidential Election in June 2009

CAEI E-Books cover

The presidential election in Iran in the summer of 2009 presented the Iranian population with a distinctive new way of campaigning. Public and modern media was for the first time fully implemented as effective campaigning tools and the Internet and mobile phones became just as important measures of campaigning as the usual ways of bill boards, posters and flyers. For the first time in Iranian history, national broadcasted live TV debates aired and each candidate participated in these debates openly criticizing each other and even the incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Modern media became the new way of reaching the voters and communicating messages to the public.

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