Typology of Audiences and the Media Duty according to Islam

Abstract

From early 1930s and side by side with the mass media expansion, research activities in this field started. The basic principles of this science are: control analysis, content analysis, media analysis, audience analysis, and the analysis of media impact on the audiences (Mo'tamednejad, 1356, P.14). It is necessary, therefore, to examine all these factors one by one to obtain a comprehensive model in social communication sciences, meanwhile, it should be noticed that due to social and cultural diversity, the model of each factor is different from the other, a difference which puts its effect on the results, the article is thus intending to center on "audience analysis" as the most important factor in this science as the most important factor in this science (Mohsenian Rad, 1369, P. 367) and elaborate on it based on a local perspective and by relying on Islamic values to determine the way the media should look on their audiences and categorize them. The reason is that some misunderstandings have led to erroneous classifications. This study with the use of library research has examined international audiences for an Islamic media, and by adopting "faith and good deeds" as a criterion, it has obtained eight classes of audiences. It has then depicted differences among the believers and non-believers and has determined each of these groups' trends. Finally, the relation of the Islamic media itself with the audience has been discussed and the manner of interacting with each audience group has been explained.

Keywords

• typology of audiences
• media
• islam
• believers
• non-believers