Narrative
Ali Prentiss
When
the leader if Iran wants to influence the minds of his people he uses propaganda
and strict censorship (how original). For centuries Iranian people have fought
for basic freedoms that Americans take for granted: such as reading a
suggestive or revolutionary book, watching porn, or hearing about wars on the
news and radio. Film makers in Iran have to make movies about very precise
religious material, or something that doesn’t conflict with any of the ways of
life that the government has lain out. The government’s control over aspect of
art has greatly affected the artist’s evolution and progress in Iran. The
strict rules inflicted have also developed a new kind of blogger culture (even President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has one).
Iran got hooked up to the internet in the 1990’s right after Israel. Even when at the same time, it is not possible to dial an Iranian
number from an Israeli telephone because of lack of communication between the
governments. Today
about 11 of every 100 Iranians are online. In 2003, officials announced
plans to remove and block more than 15,000 websites. They also evolved pirated
versions of US filtering systems into their own type of fire wall/ filtering
system. Worldly news Web sites, like BBC have been blocked, the head leaders
have also periodically shut down social networking sites, making it difficult
for information to reach the outside world. Cinemas suffered because most
movies were not allowed in theaters, and the movies that did play were not very
interesting. Iran doesn’t have a “Hollywood.”
The Revolutionary Guard is a powerful part of
Iranian security.
The Guard created a "Cyber Army" to train more
than 250,000 computer hackers.
The censorship in Iran has decreased the news that enters
the country, there for blocking further knowledge of the world around it. Isolation
in humans leads to the lack of understanding other cultures customs, and
today's conflicts. Keeping the people of your country uneducated about what is
going on is a very abrasive way to control a population as a whole.
David S. Cohen, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and
financial intelligence said,
"Today's designations further demonstrate our resolve to put a stop to
the Iranian regime's continued efforts to deny the Iranian people access to
information and the ability to speak freely." The United States as a
country always thinks that we can go in and help a situation, when in reality,
we usually only make problems worse. Sending reporters in during the last
election proved to be very dangerous. Many reporters were beaten, threatened,
or killed trying to voice what was really going on to the rest of the world.
The leaders of Iran have been manipulating media of all kinds for years,
changing the way that Iranian people. We are all products of our environment,
but what happens when your environment has been tampered with. Changing the way
that a large group of people see the world can be very dangerous, and will
undoubtedly cause wars and protests. Freedom of speech is something that many
Americans take for granted, while n Iran, you may be killed for voicing your
opinion.
Bibliography
CHRISTOPHER
RHOADS and FASSIHI, FARNAZ. "Iran Vows to Unplug Internet." The
Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones
& Company, Inc., 19 Dec. 2011. Web. 3 Mar. 2012.
"Media Group
Asks Nations Not to Recognize Iran Results." CNN. Cable News
Network, 15 June 2009. Web. 14 Mar. 2013.
