Investigating the impact of social networks on the political action of users in the territorial space of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Mojtahedi Najafi, Mahmood; Hamzeh, Farhad; Akhbari, Mohammad

Investigating the impact of social networks on the political action of users in the territorial space of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Mahmood Mojtahedi Najafi ¹

Farhad Hamzeh ²

Mohammad Akhbari ³

¹ Ph.D. student of Political Geography, Department of Political Geography, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

² Assistant Professor, Department of Political Geography, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

³ Associate Professor, Department of Political Geography, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the relationship between the activity of users in Telegram and Instagram social networks and their political activism in the cities of Tehran as the political-economic capital and Qom as the cultural-religious capital of the country. This study was carried out using a combined method including library study and survey using a questionnaire tool. The validity of the questionnaire was calculated by the face validity method and its reliability by Cronbach's alpha. The statistical population of this research is all members of Telegram and Instagram social networks over 15 years of age who live in Tehran and Qom, and 768 people were selected as a sample using Cochran's sampling formula and using cluster sampling. were selected The results of this research show a significant relationship between the two variables of activity in social networks and political activism of users, and the Spearman statistic at the 95% significance level is 0.24. Currently and based on the statements of the respondents, users are doing conventional political activism. However, if legal channels are closed for political activism, it can be predicted that unconventional methods of activism such as civil disobedience, protests, strikes, etc. will be used by activists.

Keywords

Social network

virtual space

political activism

Instagram